Thieves steal 1,000 beer bottle caps

Police are appealing for witnesses after a strange theft saw over 1,000 beer bottle caps stolen, but the beer in the bottles had been left untouched.

Police found dozens of bottle caps on the floor near the crates of beer (Photo: Police Essen)

The strange theft took place on Saturday (15 August) in the North Rhine-Westphalia town of Mulheim, Germany, when criminals broke into a shop and meticulously uncapped over 1,000 bottles of beer.

Police were initially baffled by the fact that none of the actual beer – a local brew called König Pilsener – had been drank. They were also aware that the thieves headed straight for the crates of beer in the shop’s storage yard when they broke in, rather than attempting to steal money from the tills or other goods.

However, authorities later discovered that the King Brewery, which produces König, was offering customers the chance to win prizes if they found a winning bottle cap on their beer.

The first people on the scene discovered dozens of non-winning bottle caps lying all over the floor near the crates of beer, but noticed none of the opened bottles had been consumed, according to English language German news site The Local.

It is unclear what the King Brewery was offering as a prize.

Police are still appealing for witnesses.