This Belgian Bar Is Demanding Your Shoe as Ransom so You Don't Steal Their Beer Glasses

This has frustrated bars and pubs across the country, who lose tens of thousands of Belgian beer glasses to treasure seekers every year. While some bars have installed expensive alarm systems and scanners at their doors, the Dulle Griet bar in Ghent is taking a lower-tech approach to prevent theft: ransom.

“Anyone who drinks our house beer must hand over their shoe,” Alex Devriendt told the Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad. “We then put them in a basket that we put up against the ceiling. The basket has now become an attraction, but for us, it remains a guarantee. [The glasses] are quite expensive because we have them made especially for us”.

While demanding collateral for a beer might be effective for glassware, it seems that beer mugs aren’t the only thing tourists are after. “We have to supplement our inventory every day”, added Devriendt. “Tourists simply want a souvenir. Some even try to throw those old-fashioned billboards off my wall. Certainly, in the winter, a lot disappears, they have thick coats on. In the summer they can hide the loot less well”.

It remains to be seen if people will still favor a keepsake from the bar more than their shoes. At least locals will have an easier job at spotting the guilty parties: all they need to look for is someone walking around half barefoot.