CZAR, Alta. -- The case of the missing heifers in Alberta turned out to be just a clerical error.

A few weeks ago, Alberta RCMP Livestock Investigation Unit said 59 mixed-breed cows were recently stolen from property near Czar, a small town about 300 kilometres southeast of Edmonton.

Alerts were sent out to the inspected livestock markets in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia and the cattle owner put up posters offering a $25,000 reward.

The police investigation, which involved an on-site investigation taking three days, checking cattle identification tags and seeing how many were brought to the market, discovered that while 59 heifers were missing, the same number of steers were bought.

Cpl. David Heaslip says he asked the cattle owner to check his numbers again.

The owner did and sheepishly told Heaslip that he found he put in the numbers twice and the heifers had never been stolen.

"Although he feels pretty bad, I phoned him a couple times and told him not to worry about it, it's just a mistake and it worked out for the better, Heaslip said.