Wine thieves use disguises and tricked-out coat in $63,000 heist – police

On November 19, a man and a woman arrived at a Virginia restaurant. They’re now accused of swiping $63,000 worth of pinot noir from a wine cellar. Photo / The Washington Post

Steps 1 and 2 of their audacious scheme: arrive at the restaurant disguised in wigs and finagle a tour of the high-end wine cellar.

Steps 3 and 4: while the woman distracts the sommelier with questions, the man slips off to grab the priciest bottles.

But what next?

Step 5 – wearing a dark overcoat tricked out with interior compartments large enough to hide six pinot noirs valued at nearly $63,000 – has become central to new charges filed in the notorious Virginia caper.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘That coat does look a little goofy’,” sommelier Christian Borel said this week. “I just wish I had turned that gut feeling into something useful.”

The man in the long coat – identified by authorities as Serbian national Nikola Krndija, 57 – slipped out of the restaurant with the wine, got to his getaway car and zoomed off from the L’Auberge Provençale Inn & Restaurant west of Washington on November 19. He remains at large.

His alleged partner – identified by authorities as Natali Ray, 56, of Kent, England – wasn’t so fast, according to restaurant staffers, who caught and detained her as they called police. She remains in a Virginia jail.

The two suspects were initially charged with three counts each: conspiracy to commit grand larceny, grand larceny and defrauding a restaurant, inn or similar business. More recently, the two were indicted on additional counts of conspiracy to possess burglary tools and possession of burglary tools, according to court records and Clarke County Commonwealth’s lawyer Matthew Bass.

In many theft cases, “burglary tools” are items used to break through a door or a window, such as a crowbar. In this one, the tools in question are the two wigs, Krndija’s apparently fake facial hair and the overcoat, Bass said.

“Virginia code specifies that an outfit can be part of burglarious tools,” Bass said.

As the code describes it: “If any person have in his possession any tools, implements or outfit, with intent to commit burglary, robbery or larceny, upon conviction thereof he shall be guilty of a Class 5 felony.”

Ray is scheduled to appear in Clarke County District Court on Wednesday for a preliminary hearing on the original charges, according to court records. Clarke County sheriff Travis Sumption said Ray has not co-operated with his investigators.

Ray is listed in court records as being represented by the Virginia Public Defender Office. Peter McDermott, the head public defender for the region that includes Clarke County, declined to comment this week.

Investigators said that the day after the theft, Krndija boarded a flight from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport bound for Vienna. “We do believe he made it home to Serbia,” Bass said.

The prosecutor isn’t expecting an immediate capture. “It’s hard to believe a tactical team would track him down in Serbia,” he said with a touch of humour, “but we’ll see.”

Also at issue are decoy bottles Krndija is accused of bringing into the restaurant inside his coat. Borel discovered two of them after the theft in the wine cellar and describes them as an effort to delay detection of the lifted bottles from France’s fabled Domaine de la Romanée-Conti estate, including one valued at $40,000.

“As soon as I saw the screw caps, I was like, that’s not it,” Borel said.

The bottles also had thin walls and fake labels, he said.

Bass indicated his office may add the screw tops to the list of burglary tools.

“The bottles, alongside the coat and disguises, will all be part of the commonwealth’s case against them,” Bass said.

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