To steal a phrase from Flavortown Mayor Guy Fieri, this story is gangster. Appearing on 60 Minutes on Sunday night, Guy Fieri explained how 24,000 bottles of Santo Tequila, the brand owned by Fieri and “I Can’t Drive 55” rocker Sammy Hagar, were stolen in an intricate cargo heist. As Fieri puts it, if it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone.
The heist went down like this: After being distilled and bottled in Guadalajara, Mexico, the tequila was shipped to Laredo, Texas, where it was split into two trucks, which would transport the agave-based alcohol to the Santo warehouse in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. However, because everything is done on these newfangled computers nowadays, with tequila companies outsourcing shipment to logistics companies, and logistics companies outsourcing to trucking companies, and trucking companies outsourcing to other trucking companies, a worm found its way in the bottle. Ultimately, the trucking company hired two other trucking companies, which turned out to be fake. The fake company sent GPS tracking and a video to Santo of a broken-down truck, along with a message stating that it had a severe water pump issue and that delivery would be delayed, but the bottles never arrived.
The whole story has a somewhat happy ending, with 11,000 bottles of Guy Fieri and Sammy Hagar tequila making it to the shelves. However, what happened to the rest is left to mystery. Somewhere, the proprietor of a fake trucking company is getting very drunk.
