Dim-witted thieves dump €1.1m empty vodka bottle

A €1.1 million diamond-encrusted bottle of vodka stolen from a bar in Copenhagen has been found dumped on a building site after thieves drained its contents and left behind the bottle, perhaps not realising its value.

The bottle of Russo-Baltique vodka, believed to be one of the most expensive in the world, was on loan to Café 33, situated in the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen, when it was stolen in the early hours of Tuesday (2 January).

It was one of 1,200 different vodka bottles on display at the bar, owned by Brian Ingberg, as reported by The Daily Mail.

The bottle of vodka contains three kilograms of gold and the same quantity of silver and is adorned with a circular patch of leather from a 1912 Monte Carlo rally car.

Its cap is shaped like a a Russian imperial eagle and is encrusted with diamonds, with its owner placing its value at 8 million kroner (£960,000).

The bottle, made by the Dartz Factory in Latvia, is thought to have garnered interest after its appearance in the Netflix series House of Cards, when it was presented to the US president, played by Kevin Spacey, by the Russian president, played by Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen.

This week, the bottle was found empty on a construction site, with the thieves seemingly unaware that the true value of their theft was the bottle itself, not its contents.

“Unfortunately, it is empty. Somebody who works at the construction site found it,” Ingberg told Danish tabloid Ekstra Bladet.

“It is the bottle that was valuable. We can refill it with vodka in Russia.”