"Beer Is A Popular Product"

"Beer is a popular product". So says Joe Priesmeyer. President of the N. H. Scheppers Distributing Company of Columbia, Missouri, in response to a scandal in Columbia city government.

This scandal has led to one city employee resignation, another facing disciplinary action, and police and prosecutors are attempting to determine what crime - if any - was committed.

The nefarious details are from the Columbia Tribune -- but here's what is known: some 1,500 cases of date-expired beer from Scheppers was sent to the city landfill and upon delivery some 800 cases were immediately destroyed.

The other 700 cases were "intact" and that's when, allegedly, two city employees pulled up in a city vehicle and took an estimated 50 cases of the beer away with the landfill. The whereabouts of the missing beer remain unknown.

"Buckler said the main issue is theft.

“Once it’s in the landfill, it is city property,” she said.

She said because the beer is city property, there could be liability issues should the employees share it with others. That remains a possibility because the city doesn’t know where the missing beer is.

Columbia police spokeswoman Officer Jessie Haden said police are working with city supervisors to determine whether it is criminal activity or just a policy violation.

“If we determine it’s a police matter, we will take some action,” she said.

Priesmeyer said despite the beer being past expiration, it was not in any way unhealthy and at worst “it loses some of its taste profile.”

He said it has been several years since Scheppers has taken beer to the city landfill, but Priesmeyer said there is nothing unusual about disposing of expired beer.

It also isn’t unheard of that people try to steal some of it.

“Every once in a while, we’ll have some beer get stolen by overzealous people off of our trucks,” Priesmeyer said. “Beer is a popular product.”

Be sure to read some of the comments at the end of the CT story.