Watch how a couple stole wine worth $1.7 million from a Michelin star restaurant in Spain

The couple fled the country after the wine heist but were eventually caught. (Representational Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

A couple pulled off an initially-successful, elaborate wine heist at a Michelin-star restaurant in Spain and evaded arrest for months. Although the former Mexican beauty queen and her boyfriend were eventually caught, the wine – worth $1.7 million - was never recovered.

Let’s go back to the start.

Priscila Guevara, 28, and her Romanian-Dutch boyfriend Constantín Dumitru, 49, visit the Atrio hotel in the Spanish city of Cáceres a few times to plan their upcoming heist.

The target: expensive wine, the diversion: a 14-course meal.

On October 27, 2021, the heist finally takes place. Guevara checks in to the Atrio hotel with a fake Swiss passport. Dumitru enters as a separate guest. They order the expensive 14-course meal from the hotel’s Michelin star restaurant and are given a tour of the wine cellar.

At 2 AM that night, Guevara calls the receptionist, alone at the night shift, and orders a salad. Reluctant, as the guest had just dined on a 14-course meal, the receptionist got her a salad.

In the meanwhile, Dumitru steals the wrong keycard for the wine cellar from the front desk and calls his girlfriend to create another diversion to get the receptionist off the desk.

So, Guevara orders dessert. Reluctantly, again, the receptionist obliges and leaves her post to get her fruit.

This time, the keycard is the right one and Dimitru fills in three bags with wine from the cellar including a vintage from 1806 that was worth $3,30,000.

The couple eventually wrap the bottles with towels to avoid clinking sounds and leave the hotel at the break of dawn.

The theft was discovered a few days later and CCTV footage revealed the criminals fleeing with their loot. The clip was shared online by the police.

As cometieron el robo, y huyeron del lugar, los dos presuntos autores del robo de vino en el restaurante #Atrio de #Cceres

Una de las botellas data del ao 1806 y est valorada en 310.000 euros, siendo un ejemplar nico en el mundo pic.twitter.com/L30oUXehVe

— Polica Nacional (@policia) July 20, 2022

They were sent for trial in Spain where Guevara was sentenced to four years in prison and her boyfriend was sent for four and half. The couple have pleaded not guilty and can appeal their sentences.

The Atrio hotel, in the meanwhile, earned its third Michelin star as for the stolen wine - it was insured. The couple has been ordered to pay $800,000 in damages to the insurers.