About 34,000 Beer Cans Taken in Two Same-Day California Heists

Two separate thefts at a Southern California beer distribution center on the same day left roughly 34,000 cans of beer missing, according to police reporting cited by The Guardian and the Los Angeles Times. The thefts occurred on August 17 at an Anheuser-Busch distribution center in Montclair, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles. Police estimate the combined value of the stolen shipments at approximately $70,000. In the first incident, a shipment worth about $45,000 was collected for delivery to Tucson, Arizona, but never arrived, according to Montclair police. About an hour later, someone claiming to represent a subcontracting company allegedly used fraudulent paperwork to collect another shipment valued at roughly $25,000. A police report obtained by the Los Angeles Times described the missing cargo as more than 1,500 cases containing Pabst Blue Ribbon and non-alcoholic Old Milwaukee beer. Pabst separately put the shipment’s weight at 40,000 pounds, or about 18,000 kilograms. Investigators were trying to determine whether the two incidents were part of a single operation. The available reporting does not state that police had identified suspects or recovered the beer. Pabst responded with a public campaign that treated the unusual thefts with a degree of humor while emphasizing that the loss was genuine. On Instagram, the company launched a countdown seeking the cargo’s return and addressed the thief directly, saying it understood the desire to show off a large supply of PBR but wished the beer had been obtained lawfully. The company also stressed that the incident was real and that it was taking the matter seriously.