Perhaps you can forgive the media and general public for not taking seriously one of the largest beer heists in California history.
For more than a week, there wasn’t much news or fanfare that thieves stole more than 40,000 pounds of Milwaukee-founded Pabst Blue Ribbon, or PBR, beer from a Montclair distribution center.
Police from Montclair, a city about 35 miles east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino County, didn’t issue a statement about the heist until more than a week after it happened.
For good measure, Pabst’s social media updates took a tongue-in-cheek approach that may have actually convinced people the posts were more playful than actual pleas for help.
Meanwhile, the whereabouts of the thieves and thousands of servings of beer are unknown as the trail has gone cold.
Essential California spoke with Pabst’s marketing team and Montclair Police to get to the bottom of this lager-than-life tale.
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34,000 cans of beer in the trucks, 34,000 cans of beer
The Montclair Police Department confirmed Thursday it was investigating the disappearance of thousands of dollars in stolen beer from an Anheuser-Busch distribution center.
The breakdown of heisted products from an original police report includes 860 cases of 15-packs of 25-ounce cans of PBR, an American-style lager, and 546 cases of 30-packs of 12-ounce PBR. Toss in an additional 196 cases of 24-packs of 12-ounce non-alcoholic cans (4,704 cans) of Old Milwaukee, owned by Anheuser-Busch, for a grand total of 33,984 cans of beer.
For the stat nerds (like myself), the 1,602 total cases equal 145.05 barrels, 4,496.33 gallons, a standalone beer weight of 39,264 pounds and a total weight (including pallets, plastic separators and other material) of 40,049 pounds.
A brewing crisis
Montclair Police Lt. Rick Dominguez valued the stolen product at $45,000 when he spoke with Essential California on Thursday.
Pabst also originally posted that a truck was stolen, though company officials later clarified no vehicle went missing.
Montclair Police then upped their estimated value of stolen product to $70,000 on Friday. The department did not respond to a call about whether it discovered that more product was stolen.
They do, however, believe the theft was no longer just one large caper.
They believe two thefts took place on Aug. 17, one at 10 a.m. and the other an hour later.
The first sudsy swiping involved $45,000 worth of product picked up at the distribution center, which never arrived at its intended destination of Tucson, Ariz.
The second incident included $25,000 worth of Anheuser-Busch and PBR beers retrieved by a “purported subcontracting company” that submitted false paperwork, according to Montclair Police.
Investigators believe they have identified similarities between the two incidents and are investigating whether they were tied to a fraudulent cargo-theft operation.
Some of the information provided at pickup regarding the trucking company, driver, and vehicles involved contained discrepancies and is also under investigation.
Ale be back
Pabst’s first Instagram message about the theft came on Aug. 22.
“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 honorable way,” the post read.
The company stated the thieves had “18 days and 44 minutes to return our truckload of beer, no questions asked.” The company also offered a reward for help in solving the theft.
At the end of the message, Pabst added, “p.s. this is real and we are deadly serious.”
“Our tone on social media is fun, and it’s what our customers expect,” said Paul Meyers, senior director of Integration Marketing at Pabst. “It’s sort of at the heart of what you’re seeing and our efforts to bring awareness to this situation.”
The post even received a playful response from KitKat USA: “I know a thing or two about these kinds of things.” In March, more than 400,000 KitKat candy bars were stolen from an Italian production site. Police have had no breaks in that case.
While Pabst’s posts certainly reached thousands, on Friday the company added a new update, saying: “To clear up the confusion, this story is real.”
Meyer said that in the age of the internet, it’s easy for “everything to seem like a marketing stunt.”
“We’ve had a great response so far,” Meyer said, “but, yes, we do want the beer back and eventually doing what it’s meant to be doing, being consumed.”
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