Men who burgled London’s famous gay book shop caught after stopping to drink prosecco

‘They got distracted by the booze and were here when the police arrived – it puts me in mind of a Joe Orton play’

Gay’s The Word was the capital’s first gay bookshop when it opened in 1979 (Google)

Two burglars who smashed their way into a historic gay bookshop in London were caught by police – after they stuck around to drink prosecco found at the store.

The pair were discovered downing the fizz in the basement kitchen of Gay’s The Word, in Bloomsbury, at 3am on Sunday. They had already polished off a bottle of tequila.

“They got distracted by the booze and were here when the police arrived,” said bookseller Uli Lenart. “It puts me in mind of a Joe Orton play.”

The rogues have since admitted the break-in at the store – the capital’s first gay bookshop when it opened in 1979 – and been sentenced. One was jailed for six months; the other given a 16-week term suspended for a year.

“I think they were looking for cash, but when they didn’t find any, they started bringing up computer equipment from the basement,” Mr Lenart told The Guardian. “As I went through the shop afterwards, I found an empty bottle of tequila, and an open bottle of prosecco on the kitchen table downstairs. They seemed to have been boozing up mid-burglary, which probably wasn’t the most prudent thing to do.”

He added a member of the public had heard the windows being smashed, and called police.

No books were taken but the thieves had targeted money from a charity box collecting for the LGBT+ youth organisation Mosaic.

The shop, in Marchmont Street in Bloomsbury, reopened after brief repairs on Monday afternoon.