Beltramo's Wine Theft/Burglary

I can’t find an online version, but this morning’s Palo Alto Daily Post had a story that the soon to be closed Beltramo’s in Menlo Park got hit last week for over $55k of wine. Lots of 1st Growth’s taken. Perps seemed to know what to take…

I didn’t realize they were still open. Apparently, Friday or Saturday is the last day of their closing sale.

-Al

That’s a bummer. Store is still open, not much left on the shelves.

Especially now.

How convenient was that? Everything’s gotta go!

Just on the surface (and I don’t know the owners or mean to impugn them), you do read that headline and immediately think it seems like quite a coincidence that the inventory all got stolen right before they go out of business.

I’m guessing the insurer will take a pretty hard look before paying that claim - though hopefully they find nothing wrong other than with the thieves themselves.

Meanwhile, I wonder if the police will do anything. Cops in Pismo Beach were just barely and only oh-so-grudgingly willing to follow up on the thieves at the World of Pinot event even though they were 100% IDed and caught red handed.

My first thought…
church.jpg

Here’s a news story:

I think the conspiracy theories are off base. Inventory in the store is probably under 2% of what was normal, i.e., a huge amount had already been sold. Almost all wine of any value was already sold throughout the price reductions over the past month or two. There was at least one wine cabinet with some higher end wines, and lists of what it contained and sale prices, all sitting out in plain sight. I suspect someone cased it, and did a quick smash and grab. Could be in and out in just a few minutes with a few cases of wine that would add up to $65k.

They were locked in cabinet with glass doors if I remember.

In the movie “Goodfellows” this kind of thing occurred regularly. Just before they would “blow the joint”, inventory would move out the back door.

I was in the neighborhood yesterday and stopped in to find a completely empty shop, except for a few bottles of 2009 Mouton and Yquem on clearance for $599 each. Sad to see them gone after all of these years.

Were they nicer than Goodfellas? :stuck_out_tongue: