A popular bar in Bruges, Belgium called The Beer Wall has recently installed alarm sensors on all of its beer glasses as well as a scanner at the entrance, in order to deter patrons from stealing them.
Customers are served with a special unique looking glasses which are designer glasses. From goblet-like glasses that usually accompany abbey-made beers, with glasses shaped like hourglasses or even sliced coconut shells.
Roughly about 1,600 Belgian beers are sold but the real problem lies that many visitors, the tourist, in particular, don’t settle for just feasting their eyes on the beauty of the glasses instead they steal them as souvenirs. Even after ignoring the warnings in four languages on the bar’s beer mats, which state that the glasses are not free and that they can be bought from the souvenir shop next door.
“In hotels people steal towels, in restaurants salt shakers and in a beer bar they steal glasses. For some reason, some customers think that when they pay for something to drink, they get the glass as a gift,” owner Philip Maes told the Het Nieuwsblad newspaper.
After seeing profits gone to waste because of beer glass theft, they are forced to go to the extreme measures, so he invested around $5,000 into an alarm system. How this work is sensors have been installed on the bottom of the glass in the bar, so if someone tries to take it out, the sensor at the main entrance will trigger an alarm.

The Beer Wall
In case you’re wondering which of the glasses at The Beer Wall is most targeted by thieves, Philip Maes says it’s the one Brugse Zot beer is served in.
So, next time, think twice before you want to steal a beer glass or you’ll get caught red-handed.