Thieves with a taste for the grape burrowed 65 feet below Paris into the catacombs and ripped off nearly $300,000 worth of wine from a private cellar, police say.
The crew entered the cellar of a chic apartment by using the underground network and made off with 300 bottles of vintage wines sometime between Monday and Tuesday, the Guardian reported.
The catacombs are made up of over 150 miles of tunnels running beneath the French city, but are off-limits to the public at night. Only a small portion of the tunnels can be visited during the day, with a guide.
Detectives said the robbers must have spotted the apartment cellar they wanted to break into, snuck into the catacombs, and drilled through limestone walls to gain entry.
Authorities have long turned a blind eye to a group of enthusiasts called cataphiles who have identified secret entrances, accessible mostly through sewer grates, risking fines to sneak in for parties, meetings and film screenings.
The catacombs, known as “The World’s Largest Grave,” are over 500 years old and hold the bones of about 6 million Parisians, moved there in the 18th and 19th centuries from several cemeteries.