French police thwart €600,000 champagne heist

Driver jumps out of moving lorry as officers seize vehicles carrying stolen Moët & Chandon
Charles Bremner
, Paris
The Times
One of the lorries carrying the stolen wine was abandoned while it was still moving near Pontault-Combault, a suburb of Paris
One of the lorries carrying the stolen wine was abandoned while it was still moving near Pontault-Combault, a suburb of Paris
Charles Bremner
, Paris
The Times

Police are hunting thieves who escaped after leading them on a ten-mile chase in two lorries loaded with €600,000 worth of champagne.

One driver leapt from his moving 38-tonne vehicle and boarded an escorting car after it was cornered on the Paris outer expressway ringroad. The other disappeared after dodging police and parking in a side street.

All the bottles of Moët & Chandon aboard the two vehicles were recovered.

Champagne theft is traditional in the run-up to Christmas. In late October last year, thieves with a lorry drove away an articulated trailer loaded with 10,000 bottles of G.H. Martel champagne worth €200,000. The lorry was recovered but neither its load nor the thieves were ever found.

Police believe that the champagne robbers depend on