34,000 cans stolen: US company offers reward to recover 40,000-pound beer load

US Beer maker Pabst Blue Ribbon has offered a cash reward for information leading to the recovery of a truckload of beer stolen from a warehouse in Southern California, turning the unusual theft into a social media appeal.The company said about 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) of beer was taken from an Anheuser-Busch distribution centre in Montclair, around 60 km east of Los Angeles, on August 17. Pabst urged whoever took the shipment to return it within a countdown period, promising “no questions asked”.“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 company said in an Instagram post, while adding that it was “deadly serious” about recovering the shipment.Pabst senior director of integrated marketing operations Paul Myers told CBS News that police believe a person impersonated the legitimate party due to collect the beer and drove away with it. The company is offering a cash reward worth half the value of the stolen products, Myers said.Police said there were actually two separate thefts from the warehouse on the same day. In the first incident, around $45,000 worth of beer bound for Tucson, Arizona, was collected but never delivered. About an hour later, a purported subcontractor used fraudulent documents to collect another shipment valued at around $25,000.A police report cited by the Los Angeles Times said roughly 34,000 cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon and non-alcoholic Old Milwaukee beer, packed into more than 1,500 cases, were stolen. Police have valued the two thefts at about $70,000 and are investigating whether they were part of the same cargo-theft operation.Pabst initially took a humorous approach on social media, posting that the “beer is getting warmer, trail is getting colder”, before shifting to a more serious appeal for help finding the truck.The theft also drew a playful response from KitKat US, which referenced a similar incident in March when a truck carrying about 12 tonnes of its Formula 1-themed chocolate bars was stolen in Italy.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.