Former employee arrested for draining thousands of gallons of wine at Woodinville winery

The mystery man who broke into a Woodinville winery and emptied thousands of gallons of wine in November was a former employee, according to the King County Sheriff's Office (KCSO).

Woodinville police arrested a Seattle man in his 60s Wednesday for the crime on Nov. 22, when he broke intoSparkman Cellars winery and opened valves on large containers of sauvignon blanc, which spilled and ruined the wine, according to the KCSO. Officials said the amount of lost product equaled about 24,000 bottles of wine worth $600,000.

According to the KCSO, the man was processed at King County jail and released. Charges of second-degree burglary were forwarded to King County prosecutors, the KCSO said.

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The man was seen on surveillance footage entering the winery through a side entrance wearing what looks like a cowboy hat and a mask at 7:34 p.m., according to the time stamp on the footage. He is seen again walking through the inside of the building at 10:34 p.m., according to the time stamp.

At 10:37 p.m., wine is seen pouring out of a tank and onto the floor in the facility’s loading area for at least nine minutes in the footage given to KOMO News.The same could be seen on the facility’s northeast storage cameras with wine flooding the cellar floors.

The man is seen exiting the building at 10:40 p.m. on surveillance cameras while the wine continues to spill out onto the cellar floors.

Woodinville police led the investigation with "significant support" from Shoreline police, according to the KCSO.

“Woodinville is wine country; I’m glad that Woodinville PD was able to help Sparkman Cellars after this incredible loss," Woodinville police Chief BJ Myers said in a statement. "Our investigators took this seriously and turned over every bit of evidence possible in order to identify and apprehend this person.”

Across the street from Sparkman, Kerri Sauve, who works for Latta Wine, spoke to KOMO News about the incident.

"I have a handful of friends that I'm close with in the Sparkman team, actually, and so when I heard about that incident, I was so saddened. It's something that can cripple a lot of wineries," Sauve said.

Sauve said when the businesses learned about this, they tried to support Sparkman Cellars however they could.

"Those big stainless-steel tanks, they can be huge. That is something that just when it drains out. There's no way to recuperate that," she added.

Josh St. Aubin, at Fidelitas, also talked about the crime’s impact. “It is such hard work, from the grapes in the vineyard to crush and bottling and the time that it takes." Both employees were relieved that police were able to find the suspect, but the concern hasn't gone away.

“Still, it just makes me worried that could happen again,” St. Aubin said.

Since a crime like this could put some wineries out of business, it is all the reason this tight-knit wine community says they'll have to continue to keep an eye out.