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A former beauty queen and her partner stole wine worth $1.7 million from a restaurant in Spain.
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The pair were sentenced Monday to about four years in prison.
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They ordered a 14-course meal to scout out the restaurant, then stole the wines in the dead of night.
A former Mexican beauty queen and her Romanian-Dutch partner have been jailed for four years for a daring heist in which they posed as high-end restaurants to steal $1.7 million worth of wine.
Priscilla Guevara, 28, and Constantin Dumitru, 49, were convicted on Monday of the 2021 plot in which they booked a 14-course meal from the Atrio Hotel in the Spanish city of Cáceres, according to local media.
According to Spain’s El País, the theft took place on October 27, 2021 and was initially successful.
One of the bottles dates back to 1806 and is worth about $330,000, according to police. Officers released security footage, including footage of Dumitru and Guevara leaving the hotel with the stolen wine.
They had visited the hotel three times over the summer, surveying the location and planning their theft, the publication said, citing a statement of facts from the local court.
On the day of the robbery, Guevara checked into Atrio with a fake Swiss passport, while Dumitru arrived as an unregistered guest, according to El Pais.
That evening, the couple ordered a 14-course meal at the hotel’s Michelin-starred restaurant and were then taken on a guided tour of the winery, according to the store.
After they returned to their rooms, Guevara called room service to order a salad at 2 a.m. to distract the receptionist, who was alone on the night shift, according to El País.
The receptionist initially refused to leave her post, wondering why Guevara wanted to eat a salad after she had just finished a 14-course meal, the store said. But he eventually accepted Guevara’s request, it was said, leaving his desk for 20 minutes, which gave Dumitru time to steal the key card to the wine cellar.
But Dumitru later realized he had stolen the wrong key and had to call Guevara to distract the receptionist again, according to The Guardian, citing court filings.
“Moments later, the woman called the front desk again, this time asking for dessert. After initially objecting, the employee finally agreed to bring her some fruit,” the court statement said, according to the publication.
This time, Dumitru grabbed the correct key card and entered the cellar, stuffing 45 bottles into a backpack and two bags, El País reported.
Dumitru then returned to the couple’s hotel room. They left before dawn the next morning, lining their bags with towels to keep the glass from ringing, according to El Pais.
Days later, Atrio’s owners realized the wine had been stolen and reported the theft to the police.
“They were professionals, they knew exactly what they were doing,” Jose Polo, one of Atrio’s owners, wrote at the time.
Nine months after the robbery, Guevara and Dumitru were arrested some 1,300 miles away in Croatia, near the border with Montenegro, El País reported. They were returned to Spain to stand trial.
The debts were never recovered, but the couple was ordered by a court to pay $800,000 in compensation to insurers, according to The Guardian.
Guevara received four years in prison and Dumitru was sentenced to four and a half years. Both have pleaded not guilty and their sentences can be appealed, El Pais reports.
As for the Atrio restaurant, the stolen wines were insured and the restaurant won its third Michelin star after the heist.
Cáceres’ prosecutor’s office and Dumitru’s lawyer did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
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