Wine Thief Makes Off With Over Half a Million {Dollars}’ Price of Bottles

There’s no subcategory of crime fairly like booze crime. It may take many kinds — promoting counterfeit bottles is, for apparent causes, a well-liked one, as are Ponzi schemes. Earlier this 12 months introduced the information {that a} storied wine store in New York Metropolis was in scorching water after it was revealed that the shop owed clients roughly one million {dollars}. (Extra not too long ago, the FBI raided the store in query, Sherry-Lehmann Wine and Spirits.)

After which there’s the case of an as-yet-unnamed thief who broke into Venice, California’s Lincoln High quality Wines by drilling into the store’s wine cellar from above — and made off with $600,000 value of bottles.

The Los Angeles Instances has extra particulars on the theft, together with the overall time it took to perform issues (three and a half hours) and the way the thief averted the alarms (getting into the house from above). Because the Instances reviews, 75 of the bottles had been valued at over $1,000 apiece.

What’s much less clear is what number of accomplices the thief had. Police advised the Instances that not less than one different particular person was taking bottles from the thief, with as much as two different individuals additionally doubtlessly concerned. The account of the theft additionally describes the thief as “sometimes elevating [his phone] to his ear” — which means that another person may need been offering directions on what to take.

The specialists the Instances spoke with provided differing opinions on the place the stolen bottles may go, with some arguing that they may be headed abroad and others positing that they could possibly be re-sold with out a lot proof of their illicit historical past. The final phrase within the story of this heist hasn’t been written but — and it’ll be fascinating to see what it finally ends up being.