Whiskey galore turned to a wee dram

A New York woman was stunned to find nine cases of 100-year-old whiskey worth $100,000 hidden in the walls of her mansion. Then, it mysteriously disappeared… and she thinks she knows who to blame.

When Patricia Hill discovered a batch of 100-year-old whiskey hidden in the walls of the house she was renovating in Pennsylvania, the haul was so large that she needed help to remove it.

Fortunately John Saunders, the live-in caretaker of the mansion Ms Hill was transforming into a bed-and-breakfast, was on hand to assist in transporting and cleaning the nine cases of pre-Prohibition tipple.

Yet after dusting the bottles down, Mr Saunders, 62, allegedly returned on his own to polish half of them off.

The caretaker is due to appear in court today in Pennsylvania, charged with stealing and drinking 52 of the bottles of Old Farm Pure Rye, which were valued by Bonhams, the auctioneers, at about $102,000 (£67,000) – almost $2,000 per bottle.