A truck driver rolled up to a Philadelphia warehouse on a sunny Friday, flashed ID, and drove off with 18 pallets of bourbon that never made it to their destination in North Jersey, reports 6ABC. The load: 10,800 bottles of Noble Oak, valued at about $500,000, according to parent company Apogee 21 Holdings. Staff copied the driver’s ID and confirmed with a shipping broker that a truck was expected, but the New York Times reports that the driver lacked a key document: the purchase order. The company now says it was hit by a “coordinated cargo theft operation carried out in broad daylight.”
Apogee 21’s chief operating officer Rob Koch told the Times that he suspects cybercriminals posed as a legitimate carrier to hijack the shipment on paper, then in person. “And you don’t really know until, well, it’s all gone, right?” he said. “It doesn’t show up at the destination.” He said the volume involved suggests a sophisticated operation, and predicted the bourbon will likely stay in the Mid-Atlantic, moving through unauthorized wholesalers, secondary markets, and online sellers. The company is urging distributors, retailers, bars, and consumers to flag suspicious bulk offers of Noble Oak. Philadelphia police and the local FBI office are investigating, as cargo theft—especially of food and beverages—surges nationwide, with estimated annual losses in the billions.
