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Looks like the host of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives found himself in a real-life episode of ‘Trucks, Thieves, and Tequila’.

Guy Fieri’s joint tequila venture with Sammy Hagar became the target of a hijacking in Laredo, Texas, when not one but two trucks loaded with hundreds of cases of their prized tequila were stolen.

According to People, the two trucks were hauling 440 cases—or a casual 24,240 bottles—of Santo Tequila, including their blanco, reposado, and an extra añejo that took over three years to craft. Because if you’re going to hijack something, might as well go for the top-shelf stuff. All of this was apparently worth $1 million, which is around R18 million – ouch!

Guy, speaking out about the incident with the publication, lamented: “We’ve worked so hard,” noting too that “This is our best year we’ve ever had in Santo. We just had all this momentum, and now whatever’s on the shelf is all people are going to get.”

 

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While the company’s distiller in Mexico is now on a frantic 24/7 schedule to replace the stolen stock, Guy admitted the timing couldn’t be worse. The hijacking hit right before the holidays—prime tequila season—making the whole ordeal even more maddening.

“Our distiller is an independent distiller who’s dependent on our sales for his livelihood and that of his team,” Santo president Dan Butkus also shared, adding: “My sales team, my marketing team, the entire Santo Spirits team is dependent upon these sales.”

He continued: “That’s sort of the piece that’s most hurtful to me. We’ve got to support these people both at the distillery and in the U.S., and we can’t do it right now without the revenue from these cases.”

Nothing says festive cheer like a stolen shipment of hard-earned extra añejo.

“This is the strangest thing I’ve ever seen in the spirits industry over 25 years. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he also shared.

“Two of our trucks, four days apart, to be stolen, it’s so out of the ordinary, out of the norm, that we’re wondering why our trucks may have been targeted.”

Guy suggested that someone could be “trying to break the momentum” they’ve been enjoying, further noting “I mean, one is one. But now you’ve got to have double the amount of people to pull off the double heist,” and that it “just seems so much riskier to take two trucks.”

Dan pointed out that the chances of tracking down the missing truckers before the tequila starts hitting the black market are slim to none.

Still, Guy isn’t throwing in the towel just yet—they’re offering a $10,000 reward in hopes of recovering at least the extra añejo.

“It’s like the crown jewel of the company, something that we’ve been working on. You can’t reproduce something that takes four years to make,” he explained.

Maybe all those years of patience deserve at least one last-ditch effort.

“It’s like a movie — I never in a million years thought this was coming down the pike like this, but it’s real,” he added.

People reported that the Laredo Police Department, Los Angeles’ Cargo Criminal Apprehension Team and a federal organisation called CargoNet are investigating the incidents.

[source:hellomag]