Surveillance footage caught the bizarre moment a man dressed as a cowboy burglarized a family-run winery in Washington state and destroyed $600,000 worth of handcrafted white wine before fleeing into the woods.
The unidentified suspect was filmed wearing a cowboy hat, a poncho and an apparent mask as he strolled up to the side door of Sparkman Cellars in Woodinville at around 7:34 p.m. on the night before Thanksgiving.
He could be seen in video obtained by the Post apparently punching in a code on an employee keycode to gain access to the building.
Just a few moments later, the cowboy is seen creeping around the stockroom.
Video from the warehouse later showed gallons of hand-crafted white wine flooding out of tanks, spilling to the ground and going down the drains.
The wine spilled for at least nine minutes straight as the cowboy exited the building through a back door and made his way into the woods carrying an umbrella, according to KOMO.
The tanks did not have any locks or security measures, and no other barrels of wine or items were damaged or stolen.
A man dressed as a cowboy in a poncho broke into a Washington winery the night before Thanksgiving and destroyed 5,000 gallons of white wine. Sparkman Cellars/LOCAL NEWS X / MEGAWorkers only discovered the mess when they returned from Thanksgiving break on Friday, KIRO reports.
The Sparkman family estimated it lost nearly 5,000 gallons, or 21,000 bottles worth of wine — amounting to almost $600,000 wasted.
The wine was set to be bottled in mid December for the holiday season.
“It just shows the person wanted to hit the winery as hard as they could to take the biggest loss that they could,” King County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Eric White told Fox 13 Seattle.
In a statement to the local news station, the Sparkman family said: “This is a tough blow for our small family business and was timed to deliver maximum damage right as the holidays get under way.
Video from the warehouse later showed gallons of hand-crafted white wine flooding out of tanks, spilling to the ground and going down the drains. Sparkman Cellars/LOCAL NEWS X / MEGA“Our team has remained steadfast and focused in the face of this unimaginable crime,” they said.
“We remain committed to delivering superb wines to all our customers and are grateful for the extraordinary outpouring of support from our community of wineries, restaurants, retailers and wine lovers.”
But most of the white wines listed on their website say they are “Sold Out” following the break-in.
The Woodinville police are continuing to investigate the burglary.
The Post has reached out to the police department for more information.
