A group of thieves allegedly broke in through the roof of a California wine store on Saturday and made off with over $700,000 worth of alcohol.
The heist took place at Lincoln Fine Wines in Venice, where the thieves reportedly arrived in a white pickup truck at around 1:00 a.m., KTLA reported. (RELATED: Former Beauty Queen Busted After Stealing $1.7 Million Worth Of Wine)
‘They didn’t deserve this’: Venice wine store picks up the pieces after $600,000 heist https://t.co/GzhoeO9Sd7
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) July 4, 2023
Video shows one of the suspects getting out of the truck and scaling what appears to be a metal shipping container while holding a knife or sharp tool. The thief then used the sharp tool to cut a hole in the ceiling over the store’s cellar, where the rarest and most expensive wine was stored, according to KTLA.
The thief then used a rock climbing rope to descend into the cellar and covered all the security cameras with socks, the outlet reported.
“They cleaned it out,” said owner Nazmul Haque Helal, according to KTLA. “They took everything, so we don’t have anything left in the Burgundy and Bordeaux side.”
The thieves reportedly stole wines from France and Italy with a total value between $700,000 to $800,00, the outlet reported.
Helal claimed that thieves could try to sell their ill-gotten wine on the black market and that the expensive bottles often contain identifying marks, including serial numbers on corks, to confirm their authenticity, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Helal intends to send a list of the missing wines to local stores and auction houses to warn them to look out for anyone attempting to unload stolen property, according to KTLA.