Police arrest 2 in wine thefts

Investigators are breaking out the bubbly this weekend after arresting a housecleaner and her boyfriend in connection with one of the nation’s most brazen wine heists.

According to police records, thieves broke into an oenophile’s posh home in this Silicon Valley suburb Jan. 4, spiriting off 454 bottles of wine worth $139,000. Their booty included a magnum of 1959 Petrus worth as much as $6,000 and a difficult-to-assemble set of Bordeaux wines representing an unbroken line of more than 20 years of French harvests.

The heist, thought to be one of the largest of its kind, was the handiwork of seasoned connoisseurs and insiders: The criminals removed few lesser-valued bottles and focused on “cult wines” made in limited numbers, often signed by vintners. They left no sign of forced entry.

Police were stumped. And last week, after another dozen bottles of wine worth $350 each went missing from the same home, wine collectors nationwide went on high alert.

Determined to find the audacious culprit, Atherton police Sgt. Joe Wade installed cameras in the restocked cave. Live video feeds went straight to his office.

The house’s owner, who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of being targeted by other thieves, scheduled the housecleaner to come over Tuesday.

The maid, 50-year-old Zhi Mua Deng of Burlingame, showed up with her boyfriend, Xiao Yan Xiang, 52, of Belmont. Although Deng was not instructed to clean the cave, the pair entered. Xiang grabbed a bottle, but then saw the camera and put it back, Wade said.

Two days later, Wade checked the video feed. The camera was pointed toward a wall.

“We think he was trying to find its source so that he could take the tape and all the evidence,” Wade said of Xiang. “The only problem was that he wasn’t able to do it before I got his face.”

On Thursday, Atherton police detectives confronted Xiang in front of his Belmont house. With a search warrant, they found some of the stolen bottles and arrested Xiang. They asked Deng to come to the police station, where they arrested her.

On Friday, the San Mateo County district attorney charged Xiang and Deng with burglary, conspiracy and possession of stolen property. Both have criminal records, including theft, Wade said.

Although an Italian company is experimenting with embedding microchips into bottles, the vast majority of wines have few identification marks that might allow an owner to identify and reclaim stolen bottles. But even that technology is aimed at deterring counterfeiters, not at stopping thieves who plunder private caves and cellars.

One of the most common targets of thieves is wine from Bordeaux, which produces some of the world’s most sublime red wine.

“Sometimes these crimes go unsolved for a long time, but this time somebody got held accountable,” Wade said.