SPANISH COUPLES STEALS WINE WORTH $1.6 MILLION
A couple from the south of Spain has been
caught after they managed to steal wine to the value of more than $1.6 million.
The man and woman stole the wine on 27 October
2021 and managed to evade the police for nine months before they were arrested
on the Montenegro-Croatia border earlier this week.
The 45 bottles of wine were stolen from the
Atrio restaurant in the Caceres. The total value of the stolen wine is around
$1.68 million with one individual bottle being valued at $307 300 alone.
According to Spain’s national police, the couple
planned the heist in minute detail. They visited the restaurant three times
before they committed the crime.
In a statement released by the police, the
suspects “showed a high level of professionalism, specialisation and perfect
planning”.
On the day of the heist, the woman booked into
the hotel under a fake name and with a fake Swiss passport. She had dinner in
the restaurant with her male accomplice.
The couple was then offered a tour of the
wine cellar which they accepted. After the tour, they went up to their hotel
room together, but the man left a few moments later to go back to the cellar
and steal the wine.
While he was stealing the wine, she was
ordering food so as to distract the hotel staff.
The missing wine bottles were noticed the
next morning, but by then the couple had already left the hotel.
Image credit: Wine Spectator