Anne Genduso: Two exquisite bottles of wine worth over thirty thousand

dollars, a toupee, a trench coat, and a missing international man of mystery.

It sounds like the plot of a glamorous James Bond movie, but in reality,

today's story was more like a bungled caper in an episode of Scooby-Doo

. Welcome to Nothing Felt Wrong, where we share stories about scams, deception,

and manipulation, and how ordinary people get pulled into situations that feel

believable until suddenly they don't.

I'm Anne Genduso, and if you're fascinated by deception and human behavior, take a

seat next to me at the Side Eye Society.

And if you're new here, consider subscribing.

It helps more side-eyers like us find the show, and you

won't miss any future episodes.

Because each year, millions of people get trapped in scenarios that they

didn't see coming, and by the time they realize something's wrong, it's too late.

We break down the psychological patterns and social dynamics that make these

situations feel believable in the moment, even to smart, capable people.

Because the goal isn't to shame victims.

It's to understand how these situations become believable in the first place.

Today's story feels almost too absurd to be real.

It's about a wine caper that stunned a family who run a charming French

country-style inn nestled in the heart of Virginia wine country, and how two

thieves exploited the family's generosity, warmth, and hospitality to steal some

of the most coveted wine in the world.

But how did two people walk into a luxury winery without raising any alarms?

To learn this,

let's go back to how it started.

Shenandoah Valley is a region in Virginia that's renowned for its rich

Civil War history, its extraordinary natural caverns, and its deep connection

to none other than George Washington.

But in modern day, perhaps the area's most well-recognized for

its flourishing vineyard culture.

As you drive through one of the most scenic routes in America, you'll be

met with pastoral rolling hills, rich forests, and hundreds of acres of

grapevine-covered fields framed by the ridgelines of the Appalachian Mountains.

And while it may feel as though you've been transported to the serene

Loire Valley in France, this is Virginia wine country, a mere one

point five hours' drive outside the bustling city of Washington, DC.

Nestled right in the heart of that wine country is L'Auberge

Provençale, a charming French country inn and fine dining restaurant.

These days, the inn is known for its award-winning cuisine, world-class

wine cellar, and creating reasons for guests to return again and again.

In other words, it was built on relationships and trust,

but it didn't happen overnight.

L'Auberge Provençale has spent forty-five years in the making,

crafted bit by bit through a family's unwavering passion for fine cuisine,

community, and the art of hospitality.

When co-owner Celeste Borel and Alain Borel first opened their doors in

1981, they had a solitary vision in mind, reimagining Provence in Virginia.

Hospitality wasn't something Alain Borel learned.

As a fourth-generation chef from Avignon, France, it was simply the family business.

He began his culinary career at a young age, trained in classical

cuisine with roots in Provence,

And he was inspired by his grandfather, who owned and

operated a 50-room hotel there.

Celeste brought her own unique skill set to the venture with a diverse

background, including experience in both emergency rooms and bakeries.

And together, they began building their dream destination with the restoration

of a small 1753 farmhouse to transform it into the inn's fine dining restaurant.

And it was no small feat.

From hauling away 90 bags of trash to evicting generations of groundhog

condominiums underneath the foundation, the Borels personally invested hours of

labor and care to shape their vision.

Over the decades, the Borels thoughtfully expanded the property into the destination

guests know today, including the site's carefully curated wine cellar, where their

son, Christian, serves as the sommelier.

And that wine cellar is where our story begins.

The cellar boasts more than fifty-four hundred bottles of wine, including

several bottles of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti, DRC, which are among

the rarest and most coveted wines in the world the flagship vineyard

in Burgundy, France makes only about 5,000 bottles of DRC wine each year.

In fact, these wines are so exclusive that they're available

for purchase by invitation only.

Even for the most prestigious restaurants like L'Auberge Provençale,

which has been a Wine Spectator Restaurant award winner since 2008.

No invite, no wine.

Christian Borel describes their rarity in a YouTube video.

He says, quote, "It is the wine of basically the billionaires. It's not the

one percentage, it's the .01 percentage. Drinking wine that's anywhere from fifteen

to twenty thousand dollars a bottle is not quite your Tuesday budget," end quote.

And the Borel family was extraordinarily proud to own some themselves.

Quote, "Over the years, we've been able to get a couple of these bottles.

They are, were the crown jewels of our wine cellar," end quote.

But on Wednesday, November 19th, 2025, that all changed.

That day, a seemingly respectable couple in their late fifties arrived

at L'Auberge Provençale to meet sommelier Christian Borel and tour

the venue as prospective clients.

They had said they worked for a Canadian finance CEO who was interested

in hosting a lavish corporate event for twenty to twenty-five people.

So naturally, they were interested in viewing the space and ensuring

that every aspect of the venue would be up to their standards.

Christian said the event planners were very particular about the conditions

of the wine, and they were very particular about the way it was stored.

They wanted to see the wine cellar and make sure it was

actually climate controlled.

And that's the first small sign that something was wrong

But like many of us do when faced with an atypical situation,

Christian explained it away.

He went on to dismiss the small red flag, saying it was, quote, "Kind

of a strange little thing to say, but not that unusual," end quote.

So after touring the dining room, he escorted the duo to the inn's

award-winning wine cellar, a very typical part of any tour.

He says that the woman was very interested in certain types of wine

because she had to report back on them to her boss, and then a small

clink was heard in the background.

She asked about the area and wanted to see some local wines because she wasn't

familiar with the Shenandoah area, but that just ended up being a distraction.

While she was chatting nonstop with Christian, keeping him occupied, her male

companion was allegedly busy stealing multiple bottles of the precious DRC

It's believed he tucked them inside specially designed deep

pockets in his trench coat.

And after that, with the concealment complete, the woman

decided that it was time to go.

According to Christian, she abruptly ended the conversation they were having when the

man came back in sight from another aisle.

He said she said, quote, "Okay, everything's great. We have to go, we

have to go, we have to go." End quote.

And that's when things started to feel really off

Christian related that he started feeling uneasy as they climbed back up

the stairs to the bar area, and this time he didn't ignore his intuition.

He immediately ran down to the cellar and went to the area where the most

valuable bottles of wine were stored.

After scanning the wines, he noticed that the exclusive DRC bottles were gone,

and in their place were other bottles.

But it was painfully obvious they were fakes.

Instead of their typical corks, these bottles had screw caps.

In fact, Christian told Wine Spectator Magazine that the decoys

were significantly cheaper in value.

He said, quote, "This is like a $4 bottle of Pinot." End quote.

And that's when shock took over.

But luckily, Christian was able to still react quickly.

He ran up the stairs and enlisted the help of new staff member who'd only

been on the job for four or five days.

Can you imagine?

After yelling, "Stop them," the staff member ran off without

hesitation after the thieves.

The rest of the staff members sprang into action to help, too, even though nobody

fully understood what was happening.

At this point, the thieves were already outside, far down

at the end of the driveway.

It was clear they had not parked in the lot.

Their car was actually about 100 yards up the road, tucked out of

sight in the grass in a pull-off area.

Christian, who was already nursing a partially torn Achilles tendon and

awaiting surgery, pushed through the pain.

He ran to the car and caught up to the man who was just closing the door while

waiting for his partner to catch up.

Christian tried to open the door and yank the man out,

but he was already taking off.

At that point, a patron who witnessed the entire debacle had jumped into his

Porsche and tried to block the car.

His vehicle was struck by another car, and efforts to thwart the getaway failed.

The thief put his car in drive, spun his tires of his rented Mazda SUV, and left

Burrell struggling to hold onto the side of the car until he no longer could,

and he fell off as the thief sped away.

But Burrell wasn't the only one left behind.

The woman thief had not made it to the car before her partner took off.

And a couple bottles were dropped during the chaotic getaway as well, making

their way safely back to the winery until they were entered into evidence.

But the two most expensive bottles totaling more than thirty

thousand dollars, they were gone.

Law enforcement, which included the local Clark County Sheriff's

Office and Virginia State Police, quickly arrived on the scene.

And almost as quickly, the woman, later identified as fifty-seven-year-old Natali

Ray from Britain, was detained by police.

After removing a wig she wore during the ordeal, she began

sharing her side of the story.

According to Christian, Ray said that she was held against her will, and she

would be harmed if she had tried to leave.

In one story, she had just met the man on a cruise ship, but in

another story, she had just met him while walking down the street.

But none of those stories seemed to add up, and Ray knew it.

Meanwhile, after a thorough investigation between both local

and federal authorities, her partner's identity was revealed.

He was Nikola Krndija, a 57-year-old Serbian national.

Sources report he had been wearing a toupee and facial hair to disguise

his identity during the theft, and he was already out of the country,

presumably with the wines in tow.

The day after the theft, authorities say Krndija boarded a flight bound

for Vienna, Austria from JFK Airport.

On December 13th, 2025, the Clark County Sheriff's Office issued three felony

warrants for Candia for defrauding an innkeeper, grand larceny, and

conspiracy to commit grand larceny, with nationwide extradition authorized.

He remains at large at the time of this recording.

But what happened next, nobody saw coming.

On April 13th, 2026, during the middle of Ray's case, just ahead

of an important hearing, the stolen wine mysteriously reappeared.

The Washington Post reported that two bottles were dropped off at the

public defender's office after whoever had them contacted Ray's oldest son,

who then helped them get delivered.

From there, they were turned over to the sheriff's office, apparently

in an effort to show that Ray wanted to make the victims whole again.

But we all know that's not how it works.

Clark County Sheriff Travis Sumpton told The Washington Post, quote, "There is

nothing in the law that says you can steal something temporarily and bring it

back and be absolved of all wrongdoings."

End quote.

The Borels say that even though the wine was returned bearing the appropriate

serial numbers to show its authentication, it has essentially lost its value.

You see, luxury wine collectors bank on precise storage handling, including

temperature and humidity settings, to ensure pristine conditions.

With no way to know how those two wine bottles were stored in the five

months since the theft, prospective buyers would be virtually nonexistent.

In The Washington Post article, Celeste Borel said, quote, "It's like not knowing

the chain of custody for evidence. Once you don't have it, the value goes away."

End quote.

So if Ray thought that returning the stolen bottles of wine would mean

no jail time, she thought wrong.

In May 2026, now six months after the theft, Natali Ray pleaded guilty in a

Clark County courtroom to her crimes: grand larceny, possession of burglary

tools, and defrauding a restaurant or inn.

And in the end, Ray was given a forty-year sentence, but all

except one year was suspended.

And on top of that, she was given credit for the six months already

served leading up to the sentencing.

So in all, she's expected to serve no more than six months in jail.

Then prosecutors expect she will be deported to the UK upon release

So how did two ordinary thieves steal some of the world's rarest

wine right from under the noses of savvy restaurant owners?

Well, it's easier than you might think, and it all comes down to

a special form of psychological manipulation called social engineering.

The US Department of State describes social engineering as the art of

manipulating individuals to divulge confidential information or perform

actions that compromise security.

Attackers employ social engineering to elicit human emotions and

exploit system vulnerabilities.

You often hear about social engineering in the context of cyber crimes, like when

a scammer convinces people to divulge confidential information like their

Social Security number or password.

But it can also happen offline.

In fact, that's how scammers have been operating for centuries before

passwords, online banking, and social media manipulation were even a thing.

Basically, social engineering is when perpetrators exploit people by tapping

into their emotions and their very human nature, which in turn leads them to do

the things that leave them vulnerable.

In this case, the wine thieves leveraged credibility so they

could gain access to their targets.

So let's take a closer look at the psychological patterns that create these

vulnerabilities and how they applied here.

So when most people think of scams, they imagine someone making

irrational decisions that are obvious.

But in reality, many manipulations succeed because of a few hidden

factors, which brings us to pattern one.

Pattern one: normalization.

The request seemed normal.

In this case, Ray and Krndija knew exactly how the hospitality industry

operates, and so it was easy to gain access to the cellar full of

the most expensive, rarest wines.

They knew that fine restaurant owners regularly host tours to prospects who are

thinking of hosting corporate dinners.

Event planners contact these types of establishments and request tours

to scout the facility ahead of securing the venue for their dinners.

I'm sure the Borells receive calls like that on a weekly basis, so

why would they question this one?

Walk-throughs are a typical part of the process, and nothing is out

of the ordinary there whatsoever.

So think about when you've booked a big event, like a wedding.

A wedding planner would never lock in a venue with a hefty deposit sight

unseen, and you probably wouldn't either yourself, and I know I wouldn't.

You need to physically look at that space to get a sense of the overall

atmosphere, the seating capacity, the layout for the full guest experience.

Because who wants to book a venue when the nearest bathroom is two floors away

and grandma can't walk up the stairs?

the same is true for corporate events.

Tours are a must.

So by posing as personal assistants for a CEO of a successful finance firm,

Ray and Krndija knew they would not be raising any alarm bells by asking for

a tour, which conveniently brought them right into contact with the expensive

bottles of wine they were targeting And that brings us to pattern number two.

Pattern two, social context.

The social context explains the behavior.

We just talked about how normal the request for a tour was

in the hospitality industry.

But beyond that, Ray and Krndija masterfully exploited typical aspects of

the human behavior to circumvent questions and get their hands on expensive wine.

So humans are expert sorters.

Our brains crave categorization and identifying patterns from previous

experiences to make sense of new ones.

And whether we like to admit it or not, sometimes that manifests

into stereotyping, even when the assumptions seem positive.

So it's like when people unfairly assume Asians are good at math

or women are good caregivers.

But we all know that stereotypes can be deceiving and harmful because they're

not based on hard evidence and facts.

So let's look at Ray and Krndija.

When they arrived at the restaurant, they tapped directly into unspoken context

clues that would gain social acceptance so that the Borels wouldn't question a thing.

They were appropriately dressed.

When you're dressed to fit in an environment, bad behavior

can be easily overlooked.

Blend in and you're golden.

Though I would argue perhaps the long trench coat and

toupee stood out in retrospect.

That was one of the first identifying features listed in the hunt for Krndija.

Two, they were older.

Both perpetrators were in their late fifties, and people often

associate age with wisdom, sophistication, and trustworthiness.

Three, they were calm and assured at first.

A calm demeanor blends in with what you'd expect from event

planners scouting a venue.

They'd be interested in details of a venue, so looking around

the wine cellar wouldn't stand out to the restaurant owners.

But imagine how suspicious it would be if the thieves looked

nervous or scared from the start.

In fact, I think that's what got them caught, because Ray started

acting really rushed and rudely ended the conversation prematurely.

If she had continued acting normal, they might have both made a clean getaway

They used the correct vocabulary and had accents.

Many Americans associate a British accent with sophistication and class,

exactly what you'd expect for someone working for a prestigious company.

So all told, these context clues made the wine thieves appear like

they belonged, and belonging equals acceptance by vulnerable victims.

If any one of these aspects were off or outside what's expected, it would

have raised red flags, and the thieves wouldn't get access to the wine cellar.

Like, I'd imagine this same ruse would have failed spectacularly if

the perpetrators were younger and they had showed up in gym clothes.

But because it all fit within social expectations, it was easy for the

Borels not to see anything amiss.

And now for the third psychological pattern.

Pattern three, values exploitation.

The target's own values became the vulnerability.

If you want to be successful in luxury hospitality, you need to

value exceptional customer service.

That can mean anything from, like, bending over backwards to allowing

prospects and guests access to areas that may be off-limits in other industries.

And that was no exception for the owners of L'Auberge Provençale.

So in a press release, Celeste Borel explained her passion for

hospitality and collecting fine wines.

Quote, "We love showing people our wine cellar. It's one of the most special

parts of who we are." End quote.

And the thieves knew that.

For over 40 years, the Borel family has welcomed guests to experience the art

of Provençal living through exceptional food, wine, and gracious service.

It's right on their website.

by targeting a premium family-run restaurant in an industry that always

puts customers first, it makes it easier than ever to bypass typical security

measures and get access to luxury goods, goods that can be fenced for tens of

thousands of dollars on the black market.

All they had to do was ask

So when you step back and examine the techniques behind

this theft, it wasn't random.

It followed a pattern.

First, there was the hook, something that made the situation seem legitimate, an

exciting opportunity to host a luxury dinner for a new corporate customer.

Then, unspoken context clues normalized the entire situation.

Any small inconsistencies didn't feel urgent yet, just explainable.

And then everything started to shift when doubt crept in.

And by the time the wines were spotted missing, the thieves were

already on their way, even though only one made a full getaway.

So in this case, hospitality, trust, pride in a family business, and

social politeness were all weaponized.

Even if no one was physically harmed in the process, psychological scars remain.

Celeste Borel told the Winchester Star that now she questions everything from

the judicial system to potential patrons.

Borel says that L'Auberge Provencal has stopped giving wine cellar tours.

They no longer have all of their wine inventory available online, which

I guess is common in that industry, and they added new security policies.

She said, quote, "Nobody's getting a wine cellar tour again unless I happen to know

them extremely well already," end quote.

And can you blame her?

The worst part?

This could have happened to any of us.

scammers, con artists, and thieves know exactly what psychological

triggers to pull to charm you, draw you in, and deceive you, no matter

how smart and savvy you may be.

My hope is that with this episode, we've peeled back the veil covering

some of their tactics, so you can be more prepared and aware the

next time something fishy happens.

All right, Side Eyers, I hoped you enjoyed today's episode.

And if you did, make sure to subscribe so you never miss a thing.

So let's leave you with this week's side eye question.

We know that even smart, capable people can get duped, just like the Borels.

So thinking about this theft, which tactic would have been the most effective on you?

Normalization, social context cues, or values exploitation

Drop your answer in the comments because I genuinely want to know what you think

and where you would've been vulnerable.

So for me, I think it would've been normalization mixed with social

context, but I want to hear from you.

So drop a comment with your pick, And if you're listening on a podcast

app, leaving a rating or review helps more side-eyers find the show.

Because nothing felt wrong until it did