Liquor thieves target a trio of businesses

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Liquor Mart in College Station, Libations Liquor in Bryan, and Specs off University Drive in College Station were all targeted by liquor thieves.

On Monday night, several hundred dollars worth of liquor was stolen from each of the stores.

Delaney Befort at Liquor Mart says $650 worth of product was stolen from their store by three men and a woman where you can see bottles being shoved into their pants and purse.

”It probably took place over the span of 10 minutes where they just took a bunch of stuff,” said Befort.

Liquor Mart says the money taken from their store equals their utility bill.

“It is a little bit more of a hit to us and it’s going to be a lot harder to recover than if we were a franchise because that’s just money we could have used towards our bills,” said Befort.

Kristine Merritt, who was behind the counter at Libations Liquor when the group came in, tells me that three men worked together to steal about $700 worth of liquor from their location, two of the men distracted the cashier, while the third took the bottles.

”Two of the gentlemen came in together and then a couple of minutes later the third one came in and kind of played it off as they didn’t know each other and they were asking a lot of questions, grabbing bottles, putting them down, like circling the store in and out,” said Merritt. “I didn’t realize they had taken anything until they had left, and it was really frustrating.”

Merritt says it hurt when these thieves took several hundred dollars from their store.

“It hurts the mom-and-pop stores, it does, because we are paying more for the product and we eat it and so it definitely hurts,” said Merritt.

Merritt says this wasn’t the first time the group of liquor thieves stole from Libations Liquor. The store was hit back in May of 2023.

Libations Liquor tells KBTX that after they looked at surveillance footage, they think the same group of people that targeted Liquor Mart targeted their store. An employee at Specs told KBTX that liquor was stolen from their store Monday night; however, we do not have confirmation that the theft was related to the ones at Liquor Mart and Libations Liquor.

Liquor Mart and Libations Liquor say these liquor thieves knew what they were doing because they had designated people to distract the cashier while they stole.

Seth Waller, the Bryan Police Public Information Officer, encourages business owners who find themselves in a theft situation to call or text 9-1-1 and report the incident.

“Do your best to try to pay attention to everyone in the store. Obviously, if you think it’s happening, call 9-1-1, let us come out, let us investigate it, let us talk to those individuals, and go from there,” said Waller. “An officer will respond out there, gather up as much information as they can regarding the theft and just gather up as much to put an investigation together to do a thorough investigation.”

Both are currently working with law enforcement regarding the incidents.

Anyone with information to help identify these thieves is asked to reach out to College Station police at 979-764-3600 or Bryan police at 9979)-209-5300.