Burglary foiled in a London bookshop after prosecco distracts raiders

Two burglars reportedly broke into the London bookshop, Gay's The Word, the first LGBTQ+ bookshop in the UK and were detained after police caught them chugging white wine prosecco in the basement of the bookstore.

According to the reports, after ransacking the shop, the burglars headed to the store’s kitchen where they found a bottle of prosecco left on the premises from the previous night’s birthday celebration of a staff member.

Uli Lenart, the bookseller told the media that they had been in the store for some time and were looking for cash, however, when they did not find any, they went to the basement to look for computer equipments. He said that as he went through the shop later, he noticed an empty bottle of tequila and a bottle of prosecco lying on the kitchen table. He added that it was clear the thieves were boozing downstairs during the burglary.

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Thieves couldn't hear the police arriving

The cops were informed by a passerby who heard noises from the bookstore from outside and saw the window smashed, suggest reports. The thieves had reportedly gotten distracted by the booze and did not hear the police arrive.

Lenart further added that no books were stolen, and only cash from the counter box was taken by the burglars that the store had collected for the LGBTQ+ Youth Charity Mosaic. Lenart said that the shop needed to be repaired, there were broken windows that he had fixed earlier. The bookstore has been the target of homophobic attacks in the past, the latest of which took place in 2018, Lenart added.

The store reportedly held a book launch on Thursday for Sophie Ward’s debut novel, Love and Other Thought Experiments, where they informed the customers of the break-in. The customers were extremely unhappy that the money for the charity was stolen, they made fresh donations for Mosaic, for a larger amount than they had earlier, confirmed reports.

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