A Sanford man told WRAL News on Tuesday that someone broke into his warehouse and set the building on fire.
Keaton Forbes and Grant Daley, owners of Booze Juice, an alcoholic beverage company that sells alcoholic cocktails in pouches, said they had more than $100,000 worth of product in their warehouse.
“It was absolutely devastating,” Daly said. “You always keep in mind what could happen to our company, and I think the fire in our warehouse was one of those things that we never expected to happen.”
They told WRAL News they founded the company with two others while attending entrepreneurship classes at East Carolina University.
“People are always going to be drinking on college campuses, and we wanted to make it as safe a place as possible for women,” Forbes said. “We know that drinking spikes are a big problem on college campuses, so we designed a tamper-evident pouch with a very small hole to hold your drink.”
The couple said they moved into the Sanford warehouse three weeks before the fire, so there were no security cameras installed and most of the items inside were not insured.
The company had plans to expand to two more locations in South Carolina and Georgia.
WRAL News contacted the Sanford Police Department regarding the investigation into the fire, but did not receive a response.
“Right now, they’re still working on their side of the business,” Daly said. “We haven’t revealed much yet. But we trust them and believe they will give us the answers we are looking for.”
The two have set up a GoFundMe to cover the cost of the damaged product.
