HOUSTON, TX — A 56-year-old man was arrested at a Juneteenth community cookout Friday after allegedly stealing a 14-pound brisket directly off a rival pitmaster’s smoker mid-competition, an act of culinary sabotage that one witness described as “the most disrespectful thing I have ever seen at a barbecue, and I’ve seen a man use store-bought sauce.”

Otis Ray Pennywell, a longtime competitor at the annual Emancipation Park Juneteenth BBQ Showdown, allegedly approached the smoker of rival pitmaster Clarence “Big C” Dubois, 60, during a lull in the judging, lifted the lid, and removed Dubois’s prize brisket using a pair of insulated gloves and a cooler he had reportedly brought specifically for this purpose. Witnesses say the brisket had been smoking for fourteen hours.

Low and Slow, Then Gone

The theft was discovered when Dubois returned to baste his brisket and found the smoker empty. According to multiple accounts, Dubois immediately turned, pointed across the park at Pennywell — who was at that moment attempting to pass the brisket off as his own to a judge — and shouted a sentence that has since become a local catchphrase: “That’s MY bark, Otis!”

“Forty years these two have been feuding. Otis stole the man’s brisket off his own smoker and tried to enter it as his own. The judges knew. Everybody knew. You can’t fake a fourteen-hour bark. The smoke ring told the truth.” — Cookout organizer Renee Albright

Pennywell was detained by off-duty officers attending the event and later booked into the Harris County Jail on charges of theft. The brisket was returned to Dubois, who went on to win the competition, partly out of what judges admitted was “sympathy, but also it was a really good brisket.” Pennywell’s JailReport.lol booking has been filed under Crime Blotter. Bond was set at $1,000. The feud, organizers confirm, will continue next year.