Stout of order! Thieves make off with 70,000 pints of Guinness as police appeal for witnesses
Around 800 barrels of the stout were stolen from the Runcorn industrial site
Police are appealing for information after thieves stole more than 70,000 pints worth of Guinness from a storage depot.
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Around 800 barrels of the stout, estimated to be worth £115,000, was resting in two HGV trailers ahead of transportation when thieves broke into the Runcorn industrial site on Monday after draughting their plan.
In a bid to track down the stolen items, which Cheshire Constabulary hope to recover, the force is appealing for witnesses who may have seen a lorry entering the Aston Lane area at about 7.45pm.
The lorry is said to have connected to an HGV trailer containing the Guinness and left the site at about 7.55pm in the direction of the Mersey Gateway bridge.
A second lorry arrived at the same site at 9.12pm and connected to another trailer, which also contained barrels of Guinness, before leaving at 9.30pm in the direction of Rainhill and Watkinson Way, police said.
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The stolen barrels, containing around 70,400 pints of the Irish tipple, had been intended to be delivered to pubs.
Diageo, which owns Guinness, has a packaging warehouse on the Whitehouse Industrial Estate on Aston Lane.
Police say both HGVs were believed to have been driven by men.
The first driver is described as white with a short dark beard and he was wearing a beanie hat, while the second is believed to have been wearing a cap.
It is estimated the total value of the items stolen, including the trailers and the Guinness, is about £205,000.
The trailers are described as white tri-axle curtain side trailers with branding for logistics company GXO on curtains and rear doors.
The force has appealed for anyone with information or any drivers who may have dashcam footage to contact them on the website, or by calling 101 and using incident reference number IML-2408641.