City Sanitation Workers Find “Treasure” in Beer Distributor’s Trash
The Associated Press reports that Scheppers Distributing Co. sent 1,500 cases of expired beer to the landfill on April 1 in two shipments. The first shipment was destroyed immediately, but the second, containing about 700 cases of Budweiser and Michelob Ultra, was not.
Margrace Buckler, the city’s human resource director, said two Solid Waste Division workers, who haven’t been identified, brought a city pickup truck to the landfill and hauled off about 50 cases of the beer, according to the news report. After word spread of the incident, city officials reviewed video from the landfill and saw the workers drive away with their treasure.
Police and city supervisors are trying to determine if the salvage was a crime — theft of city property — or just a policy violation. When the beer was left at the landfill it became city property, and the city could be liable if the sanitation workers shared it with other people, Buckler said.
When the workers were confronted about their actions on Monday, one quit, the Columbia Tribune reported. The other could face disciplinary action.
Buckler said it’s likely that at least one landfill employee was also involved because “the assumption is that someone made a phone call.”