At the end of October 2021, a robbery worthy of a mystery novel caught the attention of an entire country and a sector, that of gastronomy.
The Extremaduran restaurant Atrio, run by chef Toño Pérez and his partner, José Polo, was raided at dawn and what they themselves called “45 jewels” were stolen from its famous winery: almost fifty of the more than 40,000 bottles that stored in the basement of the establishment with two Michelin stars.
Now, nine months later, the National Police has announced that it has arrested the alleged thieves, who plundered loot valued at 1,648,500 euros.
Of the bottles, yes, for the moment no trace.
The Police statement explains that the detainees are a man and a woman - something that was already known when the abduction occurred - and that they have been located in Croatia, thanks to coordination with the border police of that country, as well as Europol and Interpol, among other security forces.
As disclosed in their note, both had "great professionalism, specialization and perfect planning of the robbery";
in fact, they visited Atrio up to three times before committing it.
Apparently, the couple left Spain shortly after it and according to the Police "their high mobility and roaming has prevented knowing their exact whereabouts until, finally, they were located entering Croatia from Montenegro through the Karasovi Sutorina border post".
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José Polo, sommelier of Atrio, on the theft of his 45 “jewel” bottles: “They can hardly be sold in the market”
José Polo, Atrio's sommelier, gives an account in a telephone conversation of the enormous surprise that he and Pérez felt when they heard the news.
And it was not the police who told him: they found out through the media.
"We don't know anything else," he acknowledges, "the only thing they've told us is that tomorrow [Wednesday] at 12 there's a press conference [at the Cáceres police station], but they haven't told us anything."
However, despite the fact that the future return of his bottles —among them and especially one from Chateau d'Yquem from 1806 valued at more than 310,000 euros— does not seem at all assured, for Polo the news is a joy.
"Of course.
At least they have been caught, and the truth is that I never thought they could be caught, they were not Spanish, and everything was so well done that I never thought they could be caught.
🚩 LAST MINUTE
The 2 alleged perpetrators of one of the most mediatic robberies in recent years have been arrested After careful
planning of the robbery, they stole 45 bottles of wine, valued at €1,648,500, in the Atrio restaurant in #Cáceres pic.twitter. com/19JD1gRhem
– National Police (@policia) July 19, 2022
Toño Pérez explained to this newspaper last October that he was "fatal, very sad", because it was not a "question of money", but that those wines were part of his "history" and his "life".
Both also told in a letter sent to the media that this 19th century Chateau d'Yquem was, beyond its price, an object tremendously appreciated by him: "That bottle was part of my personal history, almost part of me, of the history of Atrio, but also of Cáceres, of its citizens, of all lovers of the world of wine;
she is
the bottle
, impossible to replace because of the effort, sacrifice and love for a profession and for wine.
215 years of history of Spain, of wars, times of peace and the construction of a united Europe”.
Polo and Pérez —professional and sentimental tandem for four decades— bought the bottle in 2000;
in 2001 and after an accident it was broken, but its contents could be recovered.
It was not the only one with tradition: another six were from the 19th century.
The 38 stolen bottles of Romanée Conti also stood out: “There are only 3,500 bottles per year;
there's no more.
It is an arduous task to get them,” Polo explained.
The average price of each of them in the Atrio menu is 12,000 euros.
Jose Polo and Toño Perez together with the manager of the Sánchez Castañón Insurance Brokerage in Zafra (Badajoz)ATRIO03/17/2022ATRIO (Europa Press)
What happened was worthy of a movie.
On the night of October 27, a couple made up of a man and a woman went to Atrio —which, in addition to being a restaurant, is a hotel of the Relais & Châteaux chain— after making a reservation.
"They spoke English," Polo recalled last fall.
After dinner, they visited the wine cellar, as usual, and went to their room, although only the woman, who had booked, was registered.
After one in the morning they called room service and ordered something to eat;
they were told that the kitchen was closed but that if they wanted a salad they would be brought.
"We think that at that moment they went down, opened two doors with electronic locks, with the lights off and took 45 jewels," Polo explained then.
“At five in the morning, the same couple came down with bags,
Last March, Polo and Pérez reached an agreement with their insurance company, the final amount of which was not disclosed because they signed a confidentiality clause by which they cannot reveal the amount obtained or what they will charge or which company they had contracted with. policy.
More mystery for the novel.
