A friend is trying to sell his house, and there was an Open House there. Unfortunately he did not take out the Petrus, the most valuable bottles, out of his cellar (yes he is an idiot, and I have already told him that) and somebody ran off with them.
If by any chance, anybody is offered some on the cheap, please can you let me know.
PS
I have just amended the title to include a bottle of 1966 Romanee Conti which he has just discovered missing. The level is around 3cm, and the labels are absolutely horrible, but just about readable. You could see monopole 1966 and the letters “ON.” There may be more; but apparently some bottles of Lafite and Latour admittedly from off vintages, were not touched.
That’s classy, but not an unheard of felony. If the house was highly priced even “open” house shoppers may have been financially vetted by realtor, might have a chance to find the culprit that way.
Realtor friend of mine caught a couple red-handed stealing some valuable knickknack from a house in a Sacto suburb.
It’s going to be interesting, as to whether the agent having promised that everybody who came, would be accompanied, is responsible. The insurance company I suspect will go after her, but I have to say I don’t envy my friend dealing with this.
On a different note, he is informing auction houses, local wine stores etc, as well as having an alert on Wine Searcher. Any other suggestions?
Not sure how effective it could be and it might produce a lot of noise but the Google alert trolls the web for any new story about that topic, im sure an auction house would publish a flyer or similar that might set off an alert
Thank you Mike.
I have just amended the title to include a bottle of 1966 Romanee Conti which he has just discovered missing. The level is around 3cm, and the labels are absolutely horrible, but just about readable. You could see monopole 1966 and the letters “ON.” He is sending me some photographs.
I will admit that I went to an open house and there was a 45 Mouton on a rack in the kitchen that looked like it needed a good home, but self-restraint kept me from doing anything rash.
I agree completely with the previous post and don’t see how anybody would be able to leave the home with 7+ bottles concealed. Something smells fishy. I would also find a new realtor.
He immediately canceled the listing. Apparently the realtor claimed that nobody would be allowed free access
to the house; based on my experience in open houses clearly an unworkable promise if there is only one person there.
My thought, too. That’s a lot to hide as you walk out of the house past a realtor. Are you sure it wasn’t somebody who had the lockbox code. (Another realtor?)
No lock box; the realtor is (was) supposed to attend every showing. She was also supposed to get IDs for anyone who walked into the house. As of now, apparently she has not produced any, probably just another lie.
And how he did it; that is a good question. If you have multiple showings at the same time, and one very distracted realtor, it would probably be very easy.
I think the obvious lesson is to lock up valuables; if you don’t have a lock on the cellar get one. Best option, a combination, so you don’t need to worry about keys. I put one in early and only I, my wife and the guy who installed the cellar know the code. If you have teenagers in the house, it helps them when some kid thinks it would be fun to get a bottle of wine, and yours can honestly say they have no idea what the combination is. My son who is a senior at college, even now doesn’t want to know it.
We will be selling our house soon; and although this has been a horrid reminder, it is a good lesson.