The State Department's Gift Vault Held A $5,800 Whiskey Bottle—until It Was Stolen
Many expensive items have seemingly gone missing from this vault.
Of course government officials just so happen to lose track of a $5,800 bottle of Japanese whiskey. NBC News recently reported that the search continues for the expensive bottle, gifted to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by the Japanese government, that has gone missing from the State Department's gift vault. Yes, we apparently have a vault for this kind of stuff.
Before we get to the extravagant missing whiskey and other items that went missing from the vault (because, yes, other equally and even more expensive items went missing from the vault), can we just acknowledge the fact that there's some crazy vault out there filled with super expensive stuff gifted to politicians? Someone should have made a heist movie about this by now, right? Ocean's 14?
Along with the whiskey, a commemorative gold coin, eight porcelain and copper vases worth close to $20,000, and some assorted goody bags worth about $680 each also went missing. An investigation opened this summer to find all the missing gifts has since yielded the discovery of the $20,000 vases in a storage facility. Like me, you're probably wondering: How the hell do you misplace this much stuff? Where are the high-security lasers and thermal cameras to monitor every little bug that enters the vault?
There are no security cameras in place at the entrance or exit of the vault. However, during the investigation it was found that 77 individuals used a security card to enter the vault more than 3,000 times from August 3, 2020, to January 31, 2021. So that really narrows it down. The State Department has updated its protocols and security measures to hopefully prevent this kind of thing from happening again. Yet, a report from the Office of Inspector General says that "Diplomatic Security has denied a request to install security cameras outside of the vault." Based on that alone, who knows how much these new security measures will really help.
Anyone ever taste a $5,800 whiskey before?