Spanish police are looking burglars who stole 132 bottles of wine worthy of £172,000 from a two-star Michelin cafe in Madrid.
The masked burglars broke into the upmarket Coque cafe in the early several hours of Sunday early morning by means of a chemist’s upcoming door, which shut last thirty day period.
Detectives feel the selection, mentioned to be ‘one of the best in Spain’, was stolen by criminals who could have posed as prospects in modern days.
Spanish police are hunting robbers who stole 132 bottles of wine really worth £172,000 from Coque, a two-star Michelin cafe in Madrid. Pictured: Coque’s wine selection
Rafael Sandoval, the restaurant’s sommelier and just one of the trio of brothers who individual the famed eatery, reported the robbers had experimented with to make a hole in the wall of the chemist’s, prior to accessing an inner patio they share with the subsequent-door enterprise and breaking a glass doorway to get into the wine cellar.
Some of the bottles of wine that were stolen have been explained as ‘unique.’
Mr Sandoval advised Spanish media: ‘This was a significant-precision theft. The stability actions we have in place intended they experienced to act quickly.
‘We have pictures of a few people today with their faces lined conversing with Eastern European accents but I really don’t have suspicions about who they could be,’ he reported.
‘I never know no matter if the insurance plan will protect this but it won’t go over the sentimental aspect of matters. We have bottles below that belonged to my grandfather and we have inherited from technology to technology.
‘We’re speaking about 1 of the ideal wine collections in Spain.’
The Coque restaurant was awarded its 2nd Michelin star in November 2015.
Detectives consider the assortment, said to be ‘one of the very best in Spain’ (pictured), was stolen by criminals who could have posed as shoppers in new days
Rafael Sandoval (centre), one of the proprietors of Coque cafe, talks to media customers outdoors the cafe in Madrid, Spain, November 2, 2022
It has a wine checklist of 23,000 bottles and a exclusive area named La Sacristia wherever there are only Dom Perignon bottles of distinct vintages. Diners get taken to the wine cellar and restaurant kitchen area as aspect of their culinary knowledge.
The theft is not the only significant-profile wine heist in Spain in new yrs.
A former Mexican magnificence queen is one particular of two people today facing demo around a £1.4 million wine theft at a the Michelin-starred Atrio Cafe Hotel in Caceres, south-west Spain, in Oct last 12 months.
Priscila Lara Guevara, 29, a previous ‘Miss Earth’ Mexico contestant was extradited to Spain together with alleged accomplice Constantin Gabriel Dumitru after remaining held on a European Arrest Warrant on Croatia’s border with Slovenia.
One of the wines taken was the Chateau d’Yquem 1806, bought by the hotel’s homeowners in an auction more than 20 several years back at Christie’s London and valued at almost £300,000.
General watch of wine bottles at Restaurante Atrio wine cellar in Caceres, Spain
Resort CCTV captured the pair, who experienced checked in with untrue Swiss ID files, checking out at 5.30 a.m. and leaving on foot with no forensic trace of their presence left at the hotel
Police believe that Priscila distracted an employee at El Atrio by ordering area services just after its kitchen area closed whilst her alleged male accomplice boyfriend, a Dutch-Romanian, accessed its wine cellar with a stolen grasp vital and stuffed 3 backpacks with 45 unique bottles of wine.
The subsequent day, lodge CCTV captured the pair, who had checked in with wrong Swiss identity paperwork, checking out at 5.30 a.m. and leaving on foot with no forensic trace of their presence left at the resort, leading law enforcement to initially consider an organised gang was at the rear of the heist.
The two suspects experienced visited El Atrio three periods just before the theft in June, August and September, law enforcement stated, and had, like numerous prospects, been given a tour of the wine cellar.
