Burglary in the wine cellar of the Hotel Kronenschlösschen solved

ELTVILLE. In January 2021, the wine cellar at the Hotel Kronenschlösschen was broken into. Valuable wines worth around 230,000 euros were stolen. The Gothaer insurance company, the Bad Schwalbach police and the Wiesbaden public prosecutor's office claimed that it could not have been unknown perpetrators from outside the area, but that there must have been insider knowledge. The owner and management of the Kronenschlösschen were suspected of being the perpetrators. Four house searches were carried out and an investigation was initiated against the owner of the Kronenschlösschen, his family and his employees. The accused defended themselves against these suspicions. After almost two years, the proceedings were discontinued in September 2022 at the state's expense after all speculation and insinuations proved to be untenable.

The owner of the Kronenschlösschen had repeatedly drawn the police's attention to at least 13 other burglaries in valuable wine cellars and suggested that a "wine mafia" was responsible. The police and public prosecutor's office then accused him of trying to lay a false trail. Their reasoning was that the offence could not have been carried out by unknown, non-local perpetrators and that there must have been "insider knowledge".

The criminal investigation department in Bochum / Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office has now identified the alleged perpetrators of the burglary at the Kronenschlösschen: As suspected by the owner of the Kronenschlösschen from the very beginning, a commercial gang theft involving a suspect from Montenegro, who has already been convicted nine times, who has been charged with at least two of the burglaries in other wine cellars named by the owner of the Kronenschlösschen and is suspected of further crimes, is now under investigation. The alleged perpetrators broke into the Kronenschlösschen wine cellar during the coronavirus lockdown on the night of 13-14 January 2021 and stayed there for seven hours to select and remove rare wines. The stolen wines were later taken across the border and some were sold in Belgrade. Today it is proven: All suspicions against the owner of the Kronenschlösschen were unjustified. The accusations made by the insurance company, police and public prosecutor's office that the perpetrators could not have been unknown people from outside the area, but that there must have been "insider knowledge", turned out to be false.

Although the Bochum police / Düsseldorf public prosecutor's office had already identified the perpetrators in the summer of 2023 and informed the Hessian police of all the details, the Kronenschlösschen was not informed by the police or the public prosecutor's office. It was only because the owner filed an official liability suit against the state of Hesse that he became aware of this five months later as part of this legal dispute.