Oops! Workers flush nearly 5,000 gallons of whisky

A routine nighttime cleaning at the Chivas Brothers bottling plant turned into an expensive mistake that may cost workers their jobs.

Employees reportedly poured 18,000 liters, or about 4,755 gallons, of scotch into the sewer system in Dumbarton, Scotland. "It was like someone turned on a tap and it just ran straight down the plughole," one insider told The Sun.

Chivas Brothers makes the Chivas Regal and Ballantine's brand and employs about 600 workers at the site.

It all took place during a normal equipment cleaning during the night shift. The workers were supposed to drain the cleaning water, but they flushed out the good stuff instead -- about $750,000 dollars' worth. Even worse, no one noticed the flub until 11 a.m.

It took sewer workers very little time to smell that much scotch coming into the system. The workers reported the smell, the BBC News reports.

Losing $750,000 on the job doesn't go over well with the bosses, either. Management is "livid," the Sun's insider said. "The guys responsible will be lucky to keep their jobs."

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