Four men were arrested in Florida for allegedly stealing more than $500,000 of tequila from a semi-truck trailer.

On Sunday night, the truck's driver stopped to eat at a diner near Tampa, when he returned to discover the trailer hitched to his truck was gone, according to a statement from the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

Following a search, deputies discovered the trailer — along with four men moving boxes of Patron tequila onto another truck registered to them.

The men had already loaded 20 cases of tequila on their truck when deputies arrived, the sheriff's office said.

The trailer contained about 966 cases of Patron tequila, valued at $507,105, deputies said.

All four men were charged with burglary and grand theft.

Danny Alvarez, a spokesman for Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, told Tampa's Fox 13 since the trailer was found so close to the highway, the men could have escaped had deputies not arrived sooner.

"That truck could have easily gotten on the highway and headed north, south, east, or west and would have been out of our county in no amount of time," he said.

Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.