Paris thieves get frisky with whisky, loot rare bottles worth $800 mn from famous LMDW liquor store

France may not be under Prohibition but what good reason does one need to steal whisky worth $800,000 from Paris’ most famous liquor store Maison du Whisky? Just a penchant for expensive, vintage liquor, apparently.

Communication officielle - Vol à la boutique LMDW rue d'Anjou à Paris #communiquedepresse pic.twitter.com/NDPJcrLK66

— LA MAISON DU WHISKY (@whisky_fr) November 14, 2017

A group of thieves targetted one of France’s best whisky sellers Maison du Whisky store near the upscale Champs-Élysées and made their way through $800,000 worth of the best and rarest liquor and fled on foot once the deed was done, according to media reports.

As per The Local France , it appears the thieves knew what they were after and smashed the metal shutter and door of the store located in the posh eighth arrondissement of Paris. They stole 69 bottles in all and packed them into sports bags before escaping on foot. The store’s owner registered a complaint with the police who have now opened an investigation into the matter.

It is unclear if the thieves are whisky connoisseurs or just looking to sell them in black but they did manage to surreptitiously remove one of the world’s rarest whisky and the oldest Japanese single malt — a 1960 Karuizawa, better known as “the Squirrel” by collectors, according to  Grub Street .

The French are not strangers to alcohol thefts of such proportions. In 2014, thieves stole 76 bottles of The French Laundry’s best wines worth $300,000, according to another report in  Grub Street .

A 2016 study revealed that whisky is so popular a drink in France, that it may well be on its way to become the country’s national drink.

According to researchers, a French adult consumes about 2.15 litres of whisky per year, apart from wine, cognac and other drinks, as per  The Local France . The report further puts the figure in perspective and says that the entire country consumes 140 million litres of whisky in total, enough to fill 45 Olympic-sized swimming pools.