Caretaker charged with $100,000 whiskey theft

A live-in caretaker is facing criminal charges in the US after allegedly drinking more than US$100,000 worth of “old and historical whiskey”.

Police in Scottsdale, Pennsylvania have charged John Saunders, 62, with theft and receiving stolen property after nine cases of pre-prohibition whiskey was found in a local mansion.

Saunders rented an apartment in the basement of the South Broadway mansion and it is claimed he helped himself to over 45 bottles of the 100-year-old whiskey.

In response to the charges Saunders is claiming the whiskey “evaporated” from the old bottles and that the DNA that police found on the empty bottles, was there because he was “cleaning” them.

The owners of the mansion stumbled across the whiskey, during renovations on the mansion and found that it was hidden under some stairs. It is thought that the pure rye whiskey was stashed there during prohibition by the previous owner of the mansion, industrialist JP Brennan.

Patricia Hill bought the mansion from Brennan’s daughter in 1986 and has since been remodelling the property. Hill had the whiskey valued by an appraiser in New York, who claimed the retail value of the missing whiskey was $102,400. The full value of the missing whiskey is now being sought from Saunders.

ABC News reported that the local police chief, Barry Pritts, said: “Saunders said that the whiskey probably evaporated and being that old, it was probably no good.”

Saunders is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday.