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Over the past couple of years, there’s been a spike in cargo thefts as thieves have increasingly targeted large shipments of goods they can flip for a sizable sum. That includes a bold criminal who recently showed up at a warehouse in Philadelphia and drove away with more than 10,000 bottles of bourbon before someone realized something was amiss.
In 2024, two trucks that contained close to 25,000 bottles of Santo Tequila, the brand co-owned by Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar, were stolen in Texas by thieves who made off with a haul valued at $1 million.
That was just one in a long line of heists orchestrated by the cargo theft rings that have proliferated at a worrying rate since the start of the decade. They’re responsible for hijacking upwards of $35 billion worth of goods each year, and their rise led to the Department of Homeland Security launching “Operation Boiling Point” to target operations that have hijacked shipments of products including Kit Kats, gummy bears, and even live lobsters.
Now, we can add a new one to the list after a massive amount of bourbon went missing in Pennsylvania.
Close to 11,000 bottles of Noble Oak bourbon was stolen from a Philadelphia warehouse
Industry experts say the cargo theft epidemic can be traced back to criminals who have come up with increasingly sophisticated ways to commandeer shipments, ploys that frequently include hacking companies tasked with overseeing them and forging documents to make their illicit operation seem legitimate at first glance.
According to The New York Times, that first strategy is believed to be the root of a bold heist that went down at a distribution warehouse in Philadelphia, which involved the 10,800 bottles of Noble Oak bourbon (an MGP-sourced whiskey finished in sherry casks) that were loaded onto a truck that arrived at the facility on Friday, June 5th.
Warehouse workers reportedly called up the shipping company that was scheduled to pick up the bourbon after the driver arrived and allowed him to load up 18 pallets of the booze with a collective value of around $500,000 after they confirmed a truck was slated to be dispatched to the location.
However, the bourbon failed to reach its intended destination, and Noble Oak’s parent company realized it had been duped in “broad daylight” by someone posing as a representative for the broker (the purchase order that should have been exchanged was never requested by employees at the warehouse).
The company says they believe the bourbon is still in the Philly area and have asked retailers to keep an eye out for anyone attempting to peddle ” large quantities of Noble Oak bourbon.” The Philadelphia Police Department is working in conjunction with the FBI in an attempt to track it down, but it was still missing as of this writing.