$648,000 in Stolen Wine Discovered in Seattle

Detectives discovered 2,500 bottles of stolen wine worth an estimated $648,000 in Seattle this week. As Associated Press reports, the wine was being kept in a climate-controlled storage facility where the thieves were storing it until they could resell the stock; they had already made suspiciously low-priced offers to the owner of San Francisco Wine Consulting, Neal Dessouky. The bottles went missing on Thanksgiving when the suspects broke into the lockers of Esquin Wine Merchants and absconded with 200 cases puncturing and igniting gas lines on their way out in an attempt to cover their tracks. According to AP, “Among the items discovered in searches…was a journal containing a to-do list—including tasks such as disabling Esquin’s alarms, destroying evidence, changing his appearance and obtaining an international driver’s license.” One of the suspects is a plumber who authorities believe may be connected to a similar case that took place in San Francisco last spring. [Associated Press via ABC News]