After the theft of 45 wine bottles worth a total of around two million euros, the police in Spain started the search for a mysterious couple. Among other things, a woman is suspected of having presented a Swiss passport when checking in at the affected hotel-restaurant “Atrio” in Cáceres near the border with Portugal on Tuesday evening, reported the newspaper “El Mundo” and other media on Saturday, citing the police . She was about 40 years old, very well dressed and probably wore a wig. It is believed that the ID presented by the woman was forged.
The spectacular coup happened on Wednesday night. According to previous knowledge, the woman first ate in the two-star restaurant with a man who was also around 40 years old. The two would then have visited the wine cellar. At around 1.30 a.m., the English-speaking duo asked the night receptionist to prepare something to eat for them. The couple probably used the 15 minutes that the wine cellar was unobserved to steal the bottles. The two of them checked out around five in the morning. The theft was only noticed on Thursday.
According to reports, the booty includes a bottle of "Château d'Yquem" from 1806, which, according to the restaurant's wine list, costs 350,000 euros.
The Château d'Yquem in Sauternes in the Bordeaux region is one of the most famous wineries in France.
The boss of the "Atrio", Toño Pérez (60), and his partner José Polo, who run the restaurant together, are heartbroken - not only because of the financial damage, as the reports went on to say.
“We are immensely sad.
I had this bottle on the menu for 350,000 euros, but I would never have sold it.
It belongs to the history of the house, to the history of Cáceres ”, Polo is quoted as saying.
He is convinced that it is a job theft.
"They both knew exactly what to take with them," he told the newspaper "Hoy".