ODD / ODD NEWS
Thief with an eye for detail steals costly Moutai
Published: Aug 19, 2019 04:28 PM

Bottles of Moutai. Photo: VCG



 A Chinese liquor connoisseur who used his excellent calligraphy skills to keep detailed notes on the quality of various makes of Chinese liquor known as bai jiu has been arrested for stealing 21 bottles of Moutai that had been stashed in the basement of a residential building.

Over 30 pages of notes, the man in Jinan, East China's Shandong Province provides details on how to distinguish between a real and a fake bottle of Moutai, which is at about 1,500 yuan ($213) and is one of China's most expensive liquors.

A video posted by Pear Video, says the unnamed man somehow entered a person's basement storage unit and stole 21 bottles of Moutai.  

He is seen in a security video pulling a large suitcase, which police say he used to transport the bottles to nearby bar, where he tried to sell them. 

Apparently, the owners of the bar were immediately suspicious and called the police. 

The man was soon arrested and charged with stealing Moutai valued at 31,000 yuan. 

Netizens were shocked at the man's brazen theft, but they were also impressed by his note keeping. 

One of his drawings shows a distinguishing emblem that appears on the box of a real bottle of Moutai, with a circle around it. His notes say that fake bottles don't have the circle.  

"With such earnest effort, you could learn anything," a netizen wrote in a comment.