Thieves Stole Over $10,000 Worth Of Wine In Portland, Oregon

Winemakers in Portland, Oregon, were devastated to find that $10,000 worth of wine was stolen.

Three thieves went to the Southeast Wine Collective at night on October 16 and have taken a total of 17 barrels of wine within the past three weeks.

The winery employees saw the thieves break in to take the barrels on surveillance video. They cut through the fence and rolled the barrels of wine into a van. The camera was installed as a security measure to ensure that the facility's expensive equipment was safe.

"It's a crippling feeling," Tom Monroe, co-owner of Southeast Wine Collective, told KOMO4 News. "It feels like everything has been knocked out of you and what do you do now?" Monroe said.

The winery employees were able to recover the barrels. They found an ad on Craigslist that led them to a scrapyard in Gresham, Oregon, which is almost 10 miles away from Portland. Monroe needed the barrels to harvest the wines, or else they could have gone bad.

Police have not yet made an arrest, and Southeast Wine Collective employees are concerned that the thieves may return for more wine.