Page 60 - Bloomberg Businessweek July 2018

SPIRITED AWAY

By Craig Calcaterra
Illustration by Cristina Daura
On Oct. 15, 2013, Buffalo Trace
Distillery reported that about
200 bottles of rare, renowned Pappy
Van Winkle bourbon, valued at $26,000,
had gone missing from its Frankfort, Ky., facility.
The crime made international
headlines, but almost a year
and a half later, no thief
had been found.

March 11,
2015: Franklin
County Sheriff Pat Melton
received an anonymous tip naming
the Pappy Van Winkle Bandit as Toby
Curtsinger, a longtime Buffalo Trace
employee.

Melton and his deputies sped
to Curtsinger’s home. In his
backyard, they found five barrels
of bourbon. That, plus photos on his phone of
several bottles of Pappy Van Winkle sitting on Curtsinger has remained silent
what appeared to be the seat of his truck, was about the case until now. He
enough to arrest him. agreed to speak publicly
Melton held a press for the first time
since his arrest
conference calling because, he says,
60 Curtsinger the kingpin he’s fed up with
of an elaborate
bootlegging ring and being portrayed
declaring the case as some kind
closed. of criminal
mastermind.

“I ain’t totally innocent on a lot of this
Curtsinger started
working for Buffalo Trace in stuff, but I ain’t the only one what’s guilty.”
1989, when it was known as Ancient
Age. After his first shift, his fellow employees
ushered him into a backroom, where
people were dipping plastic cups into unaged According to Curtsinger, his criminal history dates to 2003,
“white dog” whiskey. when he was assigned to a warehouse for bourbon that
didn’t meet production standards. More than the usual
number of barrels had accumulated, and Curtsinger joked
with his boss that if he would just write him a pass to take
some past security, he wouldn’t have to deal with them
anymore. Curtsinger was surprised, he says, when the boss
did just that.

“I’d see people drinkin’ on the job. I’d see them pass out, and “I made a little
you’d roll ’em to the side and go on about your business. Everybody money off of that.”
watched out for everybody. Nobody got hurt.”