Wine Heist: Thief Cuts Hole in Store Roof, Nabs $600K Worth of Bottles

Venice, California's Lincoln Fine Wines lost multiple bottles worth thousands of dollars each in a single burglary incident.

In a daring robbery that sounds like a choreographed stunt out of a heist movie, a thief — or thieves — climbed onto the roof of a Venice, California wine shop, cut a hole through the ceiling directly over the storage area, and then used a rope to lower themselves into the building. After swiveling some of Lincoln Fine Wines’ security cameras to face the wall (and covering the lens of another one with a “Smile, You’re on Camera” sticker peeled from a door), this as-yet-unidentified robber made off with over $600,000 worth of rare and vintage wines from the store.

“We have cameras all around the interior, many cameras,” owner Nazmul Haque told the Santa Monica Daily Press. “I’m a simple businessman, I do not think like a criminal. I would never have imagined someone would climb down through the roof.”

According to Haque, the perpetrator was in the store for several hours early on Saturday morning and stole more than 600 bottles of wine — including Lincoln Fine Wines’ entire inventory of Burgundy and Bordeaux. “They cleaned it out,” Haque said.

Haque shared a surveillance video of the suspected thief’s vehicle on Instagram, and it appears to be a white pickup truck that did not have a license plate. According to CNN, the burglar was seen wearing a black hoodie, a mask, and a baseball cap with a red bill.

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In the days since, Haque and store manager Nick Martinelle have been trying to piece together a list of the wines and spirits that are missing, and they’ve calculated that around 75% of their inventory was stolen. Some of those bottles included a bottle of Chateau Petrus 2016 that had a retail price of $4,500, a bottle of rare The Last Drop blended Scotch from 1971 that was valued at around $6,000, and every single bottle of Giuseppe Quintarelli wine.

“To lose 10, 15 year’s worth of work overnight is devastating,” Haque told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m not sure if I will recover emotionally,”

Once they compile their list of missing bottles, it will be sent to local wine buyers and auction houses, in case someone tries to cash in on those stolen goods. Lincoln Fine Wines is also offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can identify and help the Los Angeles Police Department catch the thief or thieves. (Haque has not speculated on the identity of the perpetrator, but has said that the individual seemed familiar with the store’s layout and inventory.)

“Through all of this anguish, it's been our community and customers that have kept our spirits high,” the shop wrote on Instagram. “We are open for business as usual, while we get back on our feet; Wednesday night tastings continue weekly. We look forward to a bright future as we try to move forward and upward from this unfortunate incident.”

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