A bar patron turned into a suspect last weekend after swiping a dismembered human toe from a renowned establishment in the Yukon — and though alcohol was involved, what prompted the theft is anyone’s guess.

The “Sourtoe Cocktail” has been a signature, exclusive drink of the Downtown Hotel in Dawson City for decades. And the bizarre experience has drawn in travellers with audacious bents from all around the world — the severed toe must kiss the lips of the drinker when they slug the shot back.

“We’ve been advertising that (the toes are) really hard to come by these days because hospitals are reluctant to release them,” said Adam Gerle, general manager of the hotel. “We get them from people who have had a medical procedure, like if someone has frostbite.”

The suspect entered the establishment around midnight, “cracking jokes about stealing the toe to his buddies,” Gerle said. “He was there with his girlfriend and they paid the bar tab, so we have his Visa slip.”

A hotel news release said the suspect is from Quebec and failed to cover his tracks on the evening of June 17: police have a name because he left his drink certificate at the hotel bar, a souvenir doled out to customers who drain the shots.

The Dawson City RCMP said the investigation is active and that they have yet to identify the suspect.

“It’s not every day that we’re investigating a theft of the Sourtoe, a Dawson City tradition,” said Jeff Myke, who works for the detachment.

But rest assured: The hotel has five extra toes handy, so customers can still get their kicks.

“They’re still gross,” Gerle said about the other dehydrated digits. “They have the nails, twisted and gnarly.”

The toes are an invaluable asset from a business standpoint, said Geri Coulbourne, the hotel’s manager. More than 70,000 people have tried the drink, enough to fill “several log books.”

“Every night, all summer, between 9 and 11 p.m. we have lineups out the door coming in from all over.”

This makes justice a high priority for the hotel, which has no qualms about laying charges.

“It’s a crime,” said Coulbourne.

Others have had similar itches to steal the loathsome toes in the past. In 2013, a man downed a big toe and paid a $500 fine upfront, said Gerle.

Rules are strict when patrons sign up for a Sourtoe Cocktail round as is: if they swallow or steal the cured toe, they are smacked with a $2,500 fine, which was raised after the 2013 incident.

“We’re trying to discourage stunts and copycats,” said Gerle.

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The drink has been considered a Dawson City must-do since the mid-’70s. As legend has it, a Dawson City rumrunner enroute to the Alaskan border during the 1930s prohibition era froze his big toe after stepping off his dogsled into an icy overflow. His brother chopped off the frozen toe with an axe and preserved it in a jar of alcohol, in an attempt to prevent gangrene.

It was discovered years later in a cabin, and to commemorate the find, the Sourtoe Cocktail Club was born.

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