A British woman is in custody, accused of helping a still-uncaught accomplice steal six bottles of prestigious French wine from a restaurant in Virginia.
L’Auberge Provencale Inn & Restaurant in Boyce, 70 miles west of Washington, says two suspects posed as event planners during a visit this month and distracted staff to pull off the theft.
Natali Ray, 56, is alleged to have used a pseudonym, “Stephanie Baker,” and claimed to be picking out wine for an event for a fictitious boss, according to CCTV footage acquired by the Daily Mail.
Her male accomplice is accused of putting pilfered bottles of wine into his overcoat while she chatted up staff.
“She was guiding me away from certain areas, saying we’re not as familiar with American wines, so can you show me those? With the power of suggestion, she got me to move around the cellar where certain countries were kept. Doing so allowed the other man to be out of sight, just long enough to line his pockets with lots of wine,” Christian Borel, whose family owns the restaurant, told the Daily Mail.
The pair, the restaurant said, even used decoy bottles to try and cover up the alleged wine theft, and their getaway rental car with New Jersey plates was parked away from the restaurant to avoid detection.
Restaurant staff, aided by a patron, stopped the female suspect before she could get away. Her male accomplice is still at large.
Two stolen bottles were recovered near the restaurant, but several others remain missing, including bottles from the French vineyard Domaine de la Romanee-Conti.
The two bottles recovered also hailed from the vineyard, according to the Daily Mail. The six bottles of wine still missing are worth about $41,500.
Ms. Ray is facing two counts of grand larceny of property not stolen directly from a person worth more than $1,000 and one count of defrauding a hotel or motel of more than $1,000, according to Clarke County General District Court records. She is due in court on Wednesday.
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