ExScoop
03-23-2012, 10:49 PM
A Smith County man busted for making his own liquor claims he was inspired by the cable TV series, ”Moonshiners,” authorities said.
Smith County Constable Dennis Taylor executed a search warrant Wednesday at Donald Clark’s still on County Road 2301, just east of Chapel Hill. Clark was to be arrested Friday, Taylor said.
TABC Sergeant Marcus Stokke, who was also at the scene, said he talked to Clark for about an hour after the constable left.
“He told me he had never distilled alcohol before,” Stokke said. “He said, ‘I watched the show ‘Moonshiners’ and just started experimenting.’ ”
Stokke, based in the TABC’s Longview office, said manufacturing liquor with an illegal still is rare these days. Since he came to Longview in 2004, he has heard of only two other illegal still operations that were shut down.
After the Discovery Channel’s “Moonshiners” show came out in December, he said his office had been getting questions about it, and he had been anticipating that someone would try it.
“We’ve kind of known it was probably going to happen,” Stokke said.
Taylor, constable for Smith County’s Precinct 5, said he learned about Clark’s still in the course of a four-month investigation. The investigation was triggered when he happened upon a 19-year-old man passed out in his car in the middle of the road.
The teenager had a container of 120-proof alcohol, Taylor said.
“It knocked him out,” Taylor said. “He just took two little sips. He had never drunk it before.”
Taylor said he had reason to believe Clark was selling his product for $100 a pint, but Stokke said he thought it was more of a hobby.
In any case, both men said illegal stills are highly dangerous.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m a chemist or anything, but the first alcohol that comes off the still is going to be a methane gas,” Stokke said. “You can’t drink it, and it’s probably more flammable than gasoline.”
Because the product is homemade, its quality is unknown, Taylor said.
“When you buy moonshine in a pint jar you don’t know how it was cooked, or where it was cooked or anything,” Taylor said.
Smith County Constable Dennis Taylor executed a search warrant Wednesday at Donald Clark’s still on County Road 2301, just east of Chapel Hill. Clark was to be arrested Friday, Taylor said.
TABC Sergeant Marcus Stokke, who was also at the scene, said he talked to Clark for about an hour after the constable left.
“He told me he had never distilled alcohol before,” Stokke said. “He said, ‘I watched the show ‘Moonshiners’ and just started experimenting.’ ”
Stokke, based in the TABC’s Longview office, said manufacturing liquor with an illegal still is rare these days. Since he came to Longview in 2004, he has heard of only two other illegal still operations that were shut down.
After the Discovery Channel’s “Moonshiners” show came out in December, he said his office had been getting questions about it, and he had been anticipating that someone would try it.
“We’ve kind of known it was probably going to happen,” Stokke said.
Taylor, constable for Smith County’s Precinct 5, said he learned about Clark’s still in the course of a four-month investigation. The investigation was triggered when he happened upon a 19-year-old man passed out in his car in the middle of the road.
The teenager had a container of 120-proof alcohol, Taylor said.
“It knocked him out,” Taylor said. “He just took two little sips. He had never drunk it before.”
Taylor said he had reason to believe Clark was selling his product for $100 a pint, but Stokke said he thought it was more of a hobby.
In any case, both men said illegal stills are highly dangerous.
“I don’t want to sound like I’m a chemist or anything, but the first alcohol that comes off the still is going to be a methane gas,” Stokke said. “You can’t drink it, and it’s probably more flammable than gasoline.”
Because the product is homemade, its quality is unknown, Taylor said.
“When you buy moonshine in a pint jar you don’t know how it was cooked, or where it was cooked or anything,” Taylor said.