Yuma-raised veteran served under ‘American Sniper’ and then finds success

One Yuma-raised Veteran joined became a Navy SEAL, serving under the American Sniper, and then went on to make millions in profit selling bottle openers.

Eli Crane was introduced to the military when he was young.

“My parents would always introduce us to men and women who were in the Marine Corp. and I just remember watching how they carried themselves and how they treated other people and how other people treated them. I also loved the fact that they were engaged and involved in something that was much bigger than themselves. I always really loved that because my parents taught me from a young age that freedom isn’t free and that somebody has to fight for it,” explained Crane.

Crane went out and fought for our freedom, where he learned from the best.

He worked under Chris Kyle, ‘The American Sniper,’ for about two years.

Crane said it was an honor to work with him.

“Before I even got to Seal team 3, Chris had the nickname the legend and when I found out that I was going to work for him I was like kind of starstruck, like wow that’s pretty cool. Then when I got to know him, I learned how down to earth he really was [and] how much he loved his family. What I was most impressed with wasn’t how many bad guys Chris had killed or anything like that. What I was most impressed about Chris was how devoted he was to the guys in the platoon, to us,” said Crane.

Crane’s time as a Navy SEAL introduced him to the ammunition that would later lead him to become an entrepreneur.

“I was a machine gunner or an A-dub as we call it, an automatic weapons gunner, so I carried a really big machine gun and then I did a lot of turret gunning, like if we drove around in vehicles, sometimes I would be up in the turret with a big 50-caliber, which is kind of cool because that’s what shoots bottle breachers,” said Crane.

Bottle Breacher is the name of Crane’s business.

Although they now sell more than just bottle openers, that’s exactly what it is.

“This is a dummy and inert 50-caliber round, meaning it has no primer, which starts the explosive chain. It’s got no powder in it,” described Crane.

The idea behind the Bottle Breacher came out of the Philippines.

“My little brother is a Marine, he was at the time, and he brought back a really generic 50-caliber bottle opener from the Philippines when he went on to deployment. I thought it was one of the coolest gifts I had ever received,” said Crane.

Then as his business grew, he got the opportunity to be on Shark Tank.

“It was really cool because I didn’t rehearse my pitch. I just knew that I was going to blow whoever I got to speak to away with the facts and the product and our story,” said Crane.

He landed two sharks, Mark Cuban and Kevin O’Leary.

Crane never imagined he would be where he is today but credits his faith and mistakes that turned into lessons learned.

“I always thought that I would be successful but I never thought that I could own my own business,” said Crane.

Bottle Breacher is run out of Tucson, Arizona, where Crane now lives with his wife and two daughters.

He has done more than just run Bottle Breacher.

He has appeared on Fox News, written several articles and travels around the U.S. speaking about his journey.

For more information on Bottle Breacher head to their website.