800 kg ‘gin ball’ vanishes from bottom of lake

The sphere, which contained 230 litres of limited-edition liquor, was stolen, local media reported.

An 800 kg metal ball loaded with 230 litres of high-class gin has apparently been stolen from the bed of Lake Constance in Switzerland, its distillers told reporters on Wednesday. Raising the sphere would have taken a team of “absolute professionals,” they said.

Before it is bottled and sold, Ginial’s Lake Constance Gin is poured into a giant steel ball and lowered to the bottom of the lake, where it sits for 100 days. Distiller Cello Fisch told reporters on Wednesday that his company does this to infuse the drink with the aroma of the lake, famed for its clear waters and unique flora.

When Fisch’s team went out to retrieve their latest batch last Wednesday, their diver found nothing. After three dives, “the gin was nowhere to be found,” Fisch said at a press conference, according to Swiss news site Blick.

Commercial divers joined the search the following day, as did police officers. However, the giant orb was nowhere to be found. To ensure that it remained in place for 100 days, Ginial had attached a 500 kg concrete pad to the ball. Raising it would therefore have required heavy equipment.

“They were absolute professionals,” Fisch said, referring to the unknown thieves.

He added that most of the 395 bottles of gin contained in the ball had been sold in advance, and that his company had already prepared handmade duffle bags and labels for each bottle. He said that Ginial would offer these customers the chance to buy their numbered bottle and bag at cost price.

Each bottle of Lake Constance Gin would have retailed for 99 Swiss francs ($106), meaning the ball contained nearly $42,000 worth of liquor.