An unusually determined suspect is accused of stealing about $3,000 worth of wine from a Falls Church store, after several hours of preparation.
The overnight intruder is believed to have smashed a window at Dominion Wine and Beer in Falls Church last week before cutting a hole in a wine cabinet and climbing through it to access the store, owner Arash Tafakor told ARLnow.
The process of gaining entry to the building at 107 Rowell Court took nearly three hours, Tafakor said, while the theft itself lasted about 10 minutes.
“When the suspect entered he immediately went to our reserve fridge, where he took two bottles of Dom Perignon,” Tafakor said. “We feel that the suspect has been inside the store before and was looking for specific rare wines we have on our reserve menu such as Domaine Romanee Conti Burgundy and Petrus Bordeaux. Luckily we had those wines secured in another location.”
The suspect, who remains at large, also made “several trips back to his car with a loaded bag of wines,” Tafakor said.
The lost merchandise, which included “an entire section of Cabernets,” is valued at roughly $3,000, according to Takafor’s estimate.
The window had been repaired as of Tuesday, with window bars and extra security features having been installed to prevent future incidents.
No description of the suspect is available, according to a spokesperson for the Falls Church Police Department, but an investigation is ongoing.
