Man Fieri and Sammy Hagar’s joint tequila enterprise suffered an enormous setback after two vehicles carrying about $1 million value of their Santo Tequila had been hijacked in a double heist in Texas throughout the weekend of November ninth.
In keeping with a consultant of Hagar, through Fox Information, the vehicles had been hijacked over the weekend in Laredo, simply after crossing the border into the USA. A complete of 4,040 circumstances of tequila (24,240 bottles), together with Santo blanco, reposado, and a particular additional añejo — which took 39 months to make — had been stolen.
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Hagar’s rep added that the double heist seems to be an “organized crime effort the place the vehicles had been illegally double brokered to completely different carriers who transferred the product to their vehicles” after crossing the border from Mexico into Texas. An incident report obtained by Folks acknowledged that the corporate believes “the GPS monitoring sign we had been monitoring was spoofed by a GPS emulator software utilized by the criminals.”
Hagar, in a press release to Fox Information Digital, commented, “For a rising firm like Santo, it’s actually a disgrace for one thing like this to occur in the midst of our strongest 12 months to this point and proper earlier than the vacations!”
The Pink Rocker added, “Anybody that is aware of enterprise is aware of that it is a big setback for any firm in a massively aggressive market. However Man and I’ll survive. Most of all, we’re glad that no one was damage throughout this crime.”
Folks reported that Santo president Dan Butkus estimates the entire loss to be about $1 million together with a giant hit to the corporate’s provide chain.
“We’ve labored so onerous,” Fieri informed Folks in a press release. “That is our greatest 12 months we’ve ever had in Santo. We simply had all this momentum, and now no matter’s on the shelf is all persons are going to get.”
Butkus known as the theft “the strangest factor” he’s witnessed in his 25-plus years within the spirits business.
“Two of our vehicles, 4 days aside, to be stolen, it’s so out of the bizarre, out of the norm, that we’re questioning why our vehicles might have been focused,” he mentioned, including: “It’s unlikely that they’ll discover these truckers. They in all probability hire the truck, get the bid, get the cargo, promote it, after which disappear. There are some cellphone strains we’ve from them which can be already disconnected.”
Fieri informed Folks that “somebody could possibly be making an attempt to interrupt the momentum” of Santo and hopes they will at the least get well the additional añejo — “the crown jewel of the corporate … you possibly can’t reproduce one thing that takes 4 years to make.” They plan to place a $10,000 supply out for the batch.
“It’s like a film — I by no means in one million years thought this was coming down the pike like this,” Fieri mentioned, “but it surely’s actual.”
In keeping with Folks, the Laredo Police Division, Los Angeles’ Cargo Legal Apprehension Staff, and the federal cargo theft prevention and restoration community CargoNet are investigating the theft.
In happier information, Hagar simply introduced a Las Vegas residency for his “Better of All Worlds” band that includes Joe Satriani, Michael Anthony, and Kenny Aronoff. A Reside Nation ticket pre-sale begins Wednesday (November twentieth) at 10 a.m. PT utilizing the code BEATS.