Thirsty thieves steal more than 800 Guinness kegs in England

More than 800 kegs of Guinness have disappeared from a warehouse in Runcorn, Cheshire, leaving police with a simple question: what could anyone possibly plan to do with roughly 40,000 liters of beer?

The kegs were stolen from a distribution site last week. Each held about 50 liters, enough to fill more than 70,000 pints. The beer itself was valued at £115,000, while the total loss, including the trailers, is estimated at about £205,000.

Police believe the thieves arrived in two tractor units, attached the trailers and drove away. The kegs had been intended for delivery to pubs. Investigators say the truck drivers were men and have asked witnesses, as well as motorists in the area, to check dashcam recordings.

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It is famously said that Guinness is good for you, but that only applies when it has been bought and paid for.

Detective Gary McClatchey could not resist borrowing one of Guinness’s best-known advertising lines. “It is famously said that Guinness is good for you, but that only applies when it has been bought and paid for,” he said. Police, he added, would accept “nothing less than the full recovery of all the stolen property.”

The Cheshire theft was not the only recent large-scale beer robbery. More than 18 tonnes of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer were stolen from a distribution center in Montclair, California, last month. That shipment was valued at about $25,000, and the brewer offered a reward on social media for information leading to its recovery.

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Nothing less than the full recovery of all the stolen property.