Police are looking for a gang of thieves who stole more than 10,000 bottles of bourbon from a Philadelphia warehouse.
The victim, alcoholic beverage company A21 Wine & Spirits, said that 1,800 cases of Noble Oak bourbon were stolen from the warehouse on Friday afternoon. That’s about 10,800 bottles of whiskey.
The company called the heist “a coordinated cargo theft operation.”
The theft was reported to Philadelphia police and the FBI.
Mark Newman, the CEO of A21 parent company Apogee 21 Holdings, told USA Today that the company had just finished bottling the shipment and sent it to the warehouse for pickup.
He believes the perpetrators impersonated a legitimate trucking company. “They spoof the company name, they spoof the trucking dispatcher,” he said.
Apogee 21 Chief Operating Officer Rob Koch told WPVI-TV that “unfortunately, rather than going through the regular security protocols, the warehouse did not have all of the things they needed to actually release that product.” One of the missed protocols, he said, was the driver not matching the photo on his ID.
Although the driver did not have the purchase order, “the warehouse called the shipping broker, and said, ’Hey, do you have a truck coming?’ And, of course, the answer was yes. And so they just loaded up the 18 pallets and let the guy go,” Mr. Koch told the New York Times.
Mr. Koch believes the scheme was the result of cybercrime instead of an inside job at the warehouse, telling the newspaper that “sometimes computer systems get taken over by another company, and what will happen is that they will pose as that company and go and pick up loads and just steal the whole thing.”
A21 asked that bars, brokers, consumers, distributors, freight operators, restaurants, retailers, and warehouse operators watch out for the sale of large quantities of Noble Oak bourbon through atypical channels.
The company also said it is interested in any unusual discounts offered on its bourbon, large volumes of the bourbon being offered by “unauthorized sellers,” online listings of large amounts of Noble Oak bourbon, transportation or brokerage involving newly acquired supplies of the bourbon and any suspicious storage of alcohol products.
A21 finalized its acquisition of the Noble Oak brand in April.
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