A US beer company has given a thief 18 days and 44 minutes to return a truckload of stolen beer. According to a BBC report, Pabst Brewing Company said around 40,000 pounds (18,144kg) of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, worth about $25,000, was stolen from a distribution centre in California after someone allegedly used fake documents to collect the shipment. The company has now turned to social media to try to find the missing beer. “Pabst is officially starting the clock now – you have exactly 18 days and 44 minutes to return our truckload of beer, no questions asked,” the company said in the post.
Reason behind the unusual ’18 days and 44 minutes’ deadline
The unusual deadline is not random. Pabst was founded in 1844, which is why the company chose 18 days and 44 minutes.Pabst said the incident may sound unusual, but stressed that the theft is real. “We realise how ridiculous that sounds, but it’s the truth,” the company said in its social media post. “This is real and we are deadly serious.”Pabst also joked about the thief wanting to show off the amount of PBR they had. “STOLEN,” the company announced. “To the thief: we don’t fault you for wanting to brag to your friends how much PBR you have, we just wish you obtained it the honourable way.”The brewery also offered an unspecified reward for information that helps recover the shipment.
How the beer theft happened
The stolen beer was being held at an Anheuser-Busch distribution centre in Montclair, California, and was supposed to be delivered to San Diego. According to Montclair police, the alleged thief arrived at the facility with fraudulent paperwork and managed to collect the shipment.A spokesperson said the person who collected the beer was not the driver or person who was supposed to pick up the shipment.“What we discovered was it was just a bad actor essentially who came in and pretended to be the person who was supposed to pick up the beer,” the spokesperson told CBS News.“It wasn’t the person who was supposed to pick up the beer and then they drove off with it.”Police said another shipment worth around $45,000 and headed for Tucson, Arizona, was picked up earlier on 17 August. However, it had still not reached its destination two weeks later. About an hour after that incident, the shipment of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer was collected using fraudulent documents.Police are investigating whether the two incidents were connected. “Investigators identified similarities between the two incidents,” police said. “Information provided regarding the trucking company, driver and vehicles involved contained discrepancies and is currently being investigated.”