Liquor big Bacardi filed a lawsuit in opposition to American Airways this week, arguing that the airline is liable for over 400 circumstances of cognac, which have been misplaced or stolen whereas in transit final yr. The lacking cognac is estimated to be value $65,820.
The lawsuit, filed within the U.S. District Court docket in Pasadena, Calif., was initially reported by the Dallas Morning News. The go well with alleges that final Sept., Bacardi packed up 24 pallets containing 1,680 circumstances of cognac, and shipped them from Paris to Los Angeles. When the flight landed, nonetheless, “six pallets and three cases were lost or stolen,” the lawsuit alleges. Every particular person pallet holds 70 circumstances of liquor, bringing the full misplaced circumstances to only over 400.
Bacardi owns and distributes cognac manufacturers D’Usse, Otard and Gaston de LaGrange; it’s unclear which model was packed within the lacking pallets.
Bacardi just isn’t instantly accusing American Airways of stealing, however it argues that the airline is liable for the price of the cargo entrusted to its care (as any traveler who has misplaced baggage whereas in transit can sympathize with).
Whereas it doesn’t occur typically, brazen alcohol heists do happen (and seize a share of nationwide headlines.)
In Sept. 2021, a small staff of thieves focused a Scottish bottling plant that made a preferred vodka-based alco-pop. Over two days, the burglars arrived with “a convoy” of tractors with trailers hooked up; they loaded up pallets of Blue WKD and set off. The pallets have been estimated to be value £280,000 ($350,000). After one truck was discovered (and its stash of damaged bottles) was discovered crashed on the aspect of the street, police warned the general public to keep away from shopping for closely discounted bottles.
In 2017, three Wisconsin males have been arrested for stealing liquor pallets from their employer, a spirits distributor. In response to police, the boys would load up pallets of vodka onto their very own supply vans after which promote them to native liquor shops. Over time, they stole over $41,000 value of vodka.
In 2016, Austin police arrested an employee of a beer distributor for stealing over $90,000 from his employer. Co-workers have been involved when the person would arrive a number of hours early to his shift and transfer round pallets of beer, however the police didn’t get entangled till an unrelated arrest linked over 700 12-packs of Dos Equis beer to the person, who was promoting his pilfered stash via social media.
And there’s, after all, the infamous Pappy Van Winkle theft, by which over 200 bottles of the prized bourbon vanished. In 2015, 9 folks have been indicted for stealing an estimated $100,000 value of the uncommon liquid. The theft was coated within the Netflix present Heist.