How much money can be made by stealing empty kegs? Local restaurants fear it could be a decent amount.
Recently, managers at several Huntsville restaurants reported being victims of a rather peculiar practice — keg theft.
See" Man charged after investigation into stolen beer kegs
For Molly Morin, manager of On the Docks Pub, it all started when Canvas Brewing Company staff contacted her on Monday (March 11), reporting that something odd was going on.
“Linda Fraser from Canvas told us that one of our kegs was returned there, at Canvas. So, I checked our back room, where we kept all our kegs, and there was nothing in there. Once I checked the video footage, we knew they were all stolen.”
Cameras captured two people entering the back room at around 1 a.m., taking the kegs, and leaving the site.
Morin said five kegs were stolen, which had been emptied over the past weekend. However, she added that the pub has stocked up to 25 kegs in the summer.
“We deal with a beer store every week, so they come to take our empties, and then it’s put on our bill as a credit,” said Morin. “You can get up to 100 bucks for each keg, so there’s lots of money to be had. That would have been 500 ‘bucks’ we lost that morning (March 11).”
That Little Place by the Lights' owner, Lindsay Buttus, also reported that their garbage dumpster was stolen the same morning. She said camera footage allegedly showed how the people who robbed the pub were using the dumpster to move the kegs.
According to Morin, this is the first time the pub has been the victim of this type of theft. However, discovering missing kegs has become a regular occurrence for others.
“A month ago, we noticed we were down some kegs, so we started to leave them inside,” East Side Mario’s manager Adam Thom said. “A couple of weeks passed, and our shed door had been kicked in — the hinges were all ripped out and mangled, and about six or eight kegs were gone.”
“I fixed the door as best I could, but a couple of weeks later, it was kicked in again, and our gas-powered pressure washer in there was gone.”
He estimates the business has lost about $900 between the stolen eight kegs and the pressure washer — not counting the money invested in security cameras after the thefts.
Thom described the experience as “frustrating” and said that empty kegs should be the last thing to worry about in his business.
“These guys are returning the kegs to The Beer Store looking for the deposit, and they’ve been trying to take back non-Canvas kegs to Canvas in the last couple of days. That’s a red flag right there — that’s how we knew this was happening,” said Thom.
“After the first time, I called the Beer Store, asking them to keep an eye out because it’s odd if someone shows up with two or four kegs at a time. It’s just not how it works — the kegs are returned when the truck delivers our next load.”
OPP media officer Brett McCulloch confirmed that officers have received reports regarding stolen kegs during the week and said police are investigating the matter.
This week, Huntsville OPP officers laid multiple charges following an investigation into stolen beer kegs.
Julian Orlando Chaves, is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter with the Huntsville Forester. LJI is funded by the Government of Canada.
