Police Recover $200K Worth of Stolen Booze

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Here’s your “feel good” news story of the day:

Police in Utah this week recovered an estimated $200,000 worth of stolen alcohol, most of it Patron tequila.

It all started last week when a semitrailer was stolen from a West Valley, Utah, lot, KSL.com reports, citing Woods Cross Police Cpl. Jason Matthews.

“The truck was hauling 1,229 cases of alcohol from Las Vegas to Florida when the driver parked it for the weekend,” the report adds.

Amazingly, the booze wasn’t reported stolen until the driver returned on Monday.

Considering the heist involved roughly 1,200 boxes of stolen alcohol, law enforcement officials are fairly certain it wasn’t the work of a lone thief. However, Matthews explained, they’re not certain the thieves knew they had targeted a booze trailer.

"I think they knew they were getting a truckload of property. I don't know if they knew it would be tequila or not," he said:

“The stolen truck and trailer were found abandoned at separate locations in Salt Lake City on Monday. Using a GPS device in the truck, company officials were able to retrace the vehicle's tracks,” KSL.com reports.

“They discovered it had spent several hours at a truck lot in Woods Cross near 900 South and Redwood Road,” the report notes.

Detectives obtained a search warrant after finding the “suspicious trailer” and discovered that the booze had been offloaded from the original trailer to a new one.

Police at first wanted to set up a sting operation with surveillance cameras to catch the thieves, but the owners of the stolen goods were understandably anxious to get their property back.

"The company responsible for all the property didn't want to chance losing it again," said Matthews. The alcohol was reclaimed by the owners.

The investigation into the failed heist continued Tuesday.

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