Photo: Europa Press via AP
Aformer Mexican beauty pageantstar has been sentenced to four years in prison for stealing over $1.7 million in vintage wine.
Priscila Guevara, 28, and her boyfriend, Constantín Dumitru, 49, reportedly stole 45 bottles of wine fromAtrio, a three-star Michelin restaurant in Caceres, Spain in October 2021.
The heist, which police said wasplanned in “minute detail,” according to CNN, took place while the couple was staying at a luxury hotel attached to the restaurant.
According to the court ruling, the couple left Atrio with 45 bottles of wine hidden in bags and wrapped in hotel towels to avoid any breakage, CNN added. Among the bottles stolen were two 19th-century wines from the French vineyard Chateau d’Yquem listed on the restaurant’s wine menu for around $371,000 and $47,000.
Europa Press via AP
On thenight of the theft, Guevara and Dumitru took a guided tour of the restaurant’s wine cellar after their meal before returning to their hotel room,El Paísreported in Spain.
Guevara then reportedly called the hotel’s front desk repeatedly to order room service at 2 a.m. When the only front desk employee working at the time filled her order for a salad, Dumitru stole what he believed to be an electronic key card that provided access to the wine cellar, addedEl País.
Unfortunately for the crooks, the key did not work for the wine cellar door, so Guevara then had to make a second call to the front desk, this time ordering a dessert, perEl País. This gave Dumitru another chance to gather the right key card and access the wine cellar.
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During the trial — which came after the couple was arrested crossing the Albanian-Croatian border around 1,800 miles from the scene of the crime — Dumitru’s lawyer denied the charges on his behalf, claiming he would have beenunable to carrysuch a load of wine.
The couple’s sentence is not yet final, according toEl País, and they will have an opportunity to appeal it.
source: people.com
