bottle s happy homecoming, eddie opens the now infamous lafite rothschild at a wine-tasting. the complexity, the depth, it was just amazing. in the end, all that matters to eddie is that his beloved wine came home. it was great because we actually got the bottle back. and that s what i wanted more than anything. coming up i m the customer! that s who the hell i am! in a brooklyn post office, one man delivers a first-class tirade. in los angeles, a customer cuts in line. and out west, a cattle parade makes a pit stop. oh, man, this is going to be great stuff. when caught on camera: customers gone wild returns.
the security cameras. the cameras are pretty obvious, you see them, and still, he goes on and steals the bottle. what was this customer thinking? in miami, nobody loves wine more than eddie lagaric, the owner of w wine boutique. it s magic, because all are fermented grape juice, you can discover the miracle of strawberry, blueberry, vanilla. that grape juice can get expensive. i think the best sales that we ve done was a case of three bottles for $36,000, which goes down to $12,000 a bottle. that s right. $12,000 a bottle. eddie keeps these rare and expensive wines in a highly specialized room called the 100- point room. the 100-point room has its own temperature system where we keep all the older vintages, rare to find, very limited wine,
all the gems. in october 2009, the 100-point room receives an unwelcome visitor. w wine boutique is bustling with activity as the miami beach elite taste a premiere champagne. from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., we are doing champagne testing. we had about 80 to 90 people, so the store was very, very busy. just after 7:00 p.m., a customer comes in and heads straight for the back. trying to look casual, he checks out the back door. then he surveys the 100-point room. no one in sight. satisfied with his scouting mission, the wine bandit decides it s time to make his move. eddie lagaric has it all caught on camera. right now, he s grabbing the italian wine underneath and gets ready to switch his for the cheap italian wine. as he reaches for the expensive bottle, a 1990 lafite
expensive bottle, a 1990 lafite rothschild, other customers pass right by the room, nearly catching him red-handed, but the man makes the switch. taking the pricey bottle and leaving the cheaper bottle in its place. right now he s leaving the room, acting like he s interested in the other wines. with the bottle in hand, this no-so-stealth shopper takes a peek up at the security cameras. he s probably thinking, are the cameras on or off? this customer isn t headed for the checkout counter. he s waiting for the right moment to make his escape, but with shoppers nearby, he has to stall. finally, he takes the expensive vintage and excuse me, sir, is that a bottle of wine in your shorts? it s probably not easy to walk out with a bottle of wine in your pants. the next day, eddie is shocked to find the bottle of lafite rothschild is gone.
on the open market, this bottle is worth between, i would say, $1,000 to $1,500. it s very special, extremely complex, more musk, a little bit of truffle. watching the security video, eddie immediately spots the shorts-clad bandit. i saw his face, and at first i wasn t even suspicious, because i recognized him. he s a customer. a regular customer. and i think he just went crazy. eddie makes a police report, but doesn t stop there. i, first off, called the police, and the second phone call was the tv station, local news, that actually rushed to the store. they really liked the story. this is no amber alert. this is about a stolen bottle of wine. all right. take a good look at him. police want to catch this guy. that s when attorney joseph rosenbaum gets a strange call. i got a call that i should watch the newscast, there was a guy that lifted an expensive bottle of wine, and that i should watch it, i ll be contacted in the next day. sure enough, the lafite