Someone made off with more than 30,000 cans of Pabst Blue Ribbon from a Southern California warehouse on Aug. 17 — not once, but twice in the same day, according to police in Montclair, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles.
In the first theft, an individual impersonated an authorized driver and picked up a truckload of PBR and Old Milwaukee Non-Alcoholic beer bound for Tucson, Arizona — roughly 40,000 pounds of product worth about $45,000 — and never delivered it, according to the Montclair Police Department. About an hour later, someone else submitted forged paperwork on behalf of a "purported subcontracting company" and walked away with a second shipment worth roughly $25,000.
Investigators, and the brewer, weigh in
Montclair police said they are still working to determine whether the two thefts, together valued at about $70,000, were carried out by the same crew or were opportunistic copycats striking the same facility hours apart. No arrests had been announced as of the most recent update, and the department asked anyone with information to call its detectives.
Pabst Blue Ribbon, for its part, treated the loss as a marketing opportunity rather than a crisis. The company posted about the theft on Instagram and offered a reward — cash equal to half the beer's value — for its safe return, alongside a message that leaned into the absurdity of the crime.
We don't fault you for wanting to brag to your friends how much PBR you have, we just wish you obtained it the honorable way.
Pabst Blue Ribbon, via Instagram
The brewer's parent company has leaned on scrappy, self-aware social posts for years, and this was no exception; the beer-heist post quickly racked up shares from fans amused that a can synonymous with dive bars and bargain six-packs had become the target of a five-figure, multi-stage con. Anheuser-Busch, which distributes Pabst products through its network, referred questions to Montclair police. Wire reporting on the theft noted investigators have not ruled out an inside connection at the distribution center, given how quickly both fraudulent pickups were arranged and executed.
