Caretaker drinks $100k worth of whiskey, faces criminal charges

[nate]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ODD_OLD_WHISKEY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-03-22-17-28-34

 

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Fifty-two bottles of well-aged whiskey disappeared between his lips, police said, and now it's time for a western Pennsylvania man to settle up.

John Saunders, the former live-in caretaker of a Pittsburgh-area mansion, faces criminal charges for allegedly drinking more than $100,000 worth of the owner's whiskey.

Owner Patricia Hill found nine cases of whiskey hidden in the walls and stairwell of the century-old Georgian mansion built by coal and coke industrialist J.P. Brennan after she bought it in 2012. The Old Farm Pure Rye Whiskey was produced in the early 1900s by the nearby West Overton Distilling Co.

"My guess is that Mr. Brennan ordered 10 cases . pre-Prohibition," said Hill, a New Yorker who bought the house to convert it into a bed-and-breakfast. "I was told by his family that family members used to greet him at the door each day with a shot of whiskey."

Scottdale police told The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (HTTP://BIT.LY/YU1FAW ) that Saunders drank dozens of bottles whiskey valued at $102,400 by a New York auction house.

Saunders, 62, of Irwin, was charged with receiving stolen property and theft. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

Hill told police Chief Barry Pritts she stored the whiskey in the original cases, which contained 12 bottles each. After Saunders moved out, Hill said she discovered last March that the bottles in four cases were empty.

Saunders initially denied drinking the whiskey when questioned by police, but Pritts said a DNA linked him to three of the empty bottles.

A phone listing for Saunders could not immediately be located Friday.

 

[arch stanton]

She can't prove he drank it all.

[Tank]

Just refill the empties with something else, and seal them back up. Seems like it would've been easy enough to do.

Allegedly.

[tdawg87]

Time to induce vomiting.

[deepdrive]

If you're a caretaker and you consume food or beverages of your employer (w/o formally being told not to) is that stealing? Maybe bad judgement and a fireable offense, but not sure that it's a convictable offense.

[arch stanton]

If you have hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of whiskey and you leave it in sight of a man who works as a live-in caretaker, have you already indicted yourself on a charge of criminal unawareness of the way things work on Planet Earth?

[gotbeer]

But did the whiskey taste any good?