A couple stole about $1.7 million in wine from a famous Spanish restaurant in October 2021. This week, they received a four-year prison sentence for it.
According to CNN, a Mexican woman and her Romanian-Dutch boyfriend snatched 45 wine bottles from Atrio, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Caceres, Spain.
A Spanish provincial court named the couple Tatania and Estanislao, per the BBC, but PEOPLE and Spanish media identified them as Priscila Guevara and Constantín Dumitru. Multiple outlets have reported that Guevara was a former Mexican beauty pageant queen.
CNN reports that the couple visited Atrio at least three times in the months leading to the robbery. On October 27, 2021, the couple dined on a 14-course dinner at the restaurant before taking a guided tour of its wine cellar. Earlier that evening, Priscila reportedly checked into a small hotel attached to the restaurant using a fake Swiss passport.
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Sometime after the dinner and tour, the couple returned to the room. Constantín did not check in as a guest but joined the woman. At about 2 a.m., the woman ordered a salad from the front desk. The front desk clerk eventually gave in to the woman’s request, despite being the only employee at the hotel.
Constantín used the room service distraction to steal an electronic key to the wine cellar from the front desk. However, PEOPLE reports that the first key did not work. So, Priscila called the front desk again–ordering dessert.
Then, at about 5 a.m., the couple drove off with 45 bottles wrapped in four hotel towels and hidden in travel luggage. At the time of the robbery, police said the heist was planned in “minute detail.”
Here’s Why The Wine Bottles Were Worth Over $1 Million
So why did the wine cost so much? The couple stole luxury and vintage bottles from Atrio.
Two bottles in their stolen haul reportedly came from the French winery Chateau d’Yquem. One bottle from 1806 allegedly had a 350,000 euros (over $369,000) price tag, while the other 1883 bottle was listed at 45,000 euros (over $47,000).
Their stolen goods also included vintage bottles from the 1990s and 2000s–sourced from other famous and high-standing wineries.
When police arrested the couple in July 2022, none of the stolen wine was recovered. Priscila and Constantín were reportedly discovered on the border of Montenegro and Croatia and have been in jail since their arrest. The restaurant’s insurance company cut a check for about 753,000 euros–about $794,298 in today’s exchange market.
The court has also ordered the couple to hand over the same amount in damages to Atrio’s insurer while sentencing the woman to four years and her boyfriend to four and a half years for armed robbery.
However, the couple reportedly can appeal the sentence as it is not yet final.
