It’s a story that might be of the most bizarre stories in recent time in the cigar industry. On April 3rd, a 40 foot ocean container en route to Arturo Fuente Cigars’ warehouse in Tampa, Florida was stolen. According to Arturo Fuente President Carlos Fuente Jr, the container had “hundreds of thousands of cigars” that were stolen.

The shipping container arrived in Port Everglades, Florida and was attached to the cab of a delivery truck. Somewhere along the route to Tampa, Florida the container disappeared.

“I was stunned,” said Fuente Jr. in a letter to customers. “This never happened to us in over a century in business.”

Fuente Jr. said the amount of cigars that were stolen will result in shortages of Arturo Fuente products throughout the year. The company plans on taking advantage of its recently expanded factory operations to increase production to overcome some of the shortages. At the same time Fuente Jr. told customers “we will never rush our production and aging process to get cigars into the market, we will protect the quality of our production and your confidence in Fuente cigars.”

The company also stressed that if anyone other than Fuente products should only be purchased from an authorized Fuente sales representative.