In Spain on Monday a man and a woman were sentenced to four years in prison for stealing 45 bottles of wine from a hotel. The woman had created a diversion by ordering food from the receptionist while the man stole the wine.
They had prepared their coup, but are now facing the consequences. A Spanish court on Monday sentenced a man and a woman to four and four and a half years in prison, respectively, for stealing 45 extraordinary wine bottles worth 1.64 million euros.
Among the stolen wines were a bottle of Château D’Yquem 1806 valued at 350,000 euros, another from the same cellar from the 1883 vintage valued at 45,000 euros and several Romanée-Conti Grand Crus of various vintages and of high value.
Only one employee in the hotel
The facts come from October 2021, at the hotel restaurant Atrio in Cáceres (south-west), the court of the same city recalls in a press release and is worthy of a screenplay. According to the Spanish press, those convicted are a former Mexican beauty queen and a Romanian-Dutch person arrested in Croatia in July 2022.
This couple had booked a room in a hotel restaurant under the name of the woman with a false passport. After having dinner in the hotel restaurant, they took a tour of the basement and then went to their room. At around 2 a.m., the woman called the front desk and asked for a salad from the “only employee working at the time,” the court statement said.
Wrong key and new redirect
Surprised by his salad order – since the woman had already eaten from a 14-course tasting menu – the employee initially refused because he was alone at reception, but finally gave in at the woman’s insistence.
Before attempting to enter the basement, the suspect was able to steal an electronic key from reception, which was not the correct key. Never mind: To create another distraction, the woman then ordered dessert from the receptionist.
The man returned to reception and put his hand on the sesame to gain access to the cellar, where he retrieved the 45 bottles of wine, which he “hid in a backpack and two large bags that immediately ascended to the room before the clerk returned to reception,” the statement read.