How thieves made away with $1M worth of craft whiskey from a truck

On July 31, a freight truck showed up at Westland Distillery's warehouse in Burlington, Washington, holding the necessary paperwork that purportedly gave the driver the right to pick up a shipment of Westland single malt, Watchpost blended, and Garryana whiskies bound for New Jersey.

Days later, the shipment failed to arrive at its intended destination. It turns out the individuals behind the heist had forged the document and made off with more than 12,000 bottles of premium whiskey that had been aged for a decade.

The Skagit Valley Sheriff's office is now investigating where the coveted bottles of Westland's 10-year Garryana whiskey might turn up. "It could be difficult to sell the stolen goods," said Gillespie, Westland founder and host of the WhiskyCast podcast.

"It's going to be really hard work for whoever took this to actually get this onto the market, because what they took was so rare that everybody knows about it."

These types of heists are more common in Europe, where thieves steal trailers full of premium alcohol and then resell them in Russia. Despite the substantial financial blow, company founder Gillespie remains confident in the distillery's ability to recover, partly due to its acquisition by Paris-based spirits conglomerate Remy Cointreau in 2016.

Nevertheless, the distillery is implementing enhanced security protocols to safeguard its supply chain.