One burglar arrested as another speeds off endangering the lives of policemen

One burglar was able to be arrested while another made off in a van at such speed that he endangered the lives of policeman who had arrived at the scene.

It was thanks to an observant local resident that police were alerted to a suspicious vehicle with foreign number plates in the Neuhof trading estate of the municipality in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

As several police patrols arrived at the scene, they noticed how two individuals were making their way to the vehicle parked on Neuhofstrasse. When one of the men noticed the police, he initially froze, but did not respond to police instructions to lie face down. However, he subsequently did and was able to be arrested.

However, the second man rushed to the parked vehicle and set off at speed, at great risk to nearby officers who managed to jump aside just in time. The van was then driven off at speed along Neuhofstrasse and Nordstrasse towards the A4a motorway where it was driven in the wrong direction towards Walterswil /Sihlbrugg. Despite all efforts by the police, the van was able to evade them.

It turned out the two men in question had broken into a sports shop on Oberneuhofstrasse, removed 1,200 ice-hockey sticks (which can cost between CHF 50 and CHF 300) and wrapped them in black plastic bags (photograph) before putting them in a stairwell prior to removal. It appears it was at this moment they were disturbed by the police hence they abandoned them there; no goods were actually stolen.

The man arrested turned out to be a 38- year-old Slovak national who, at the time of his arrest, was found to have been in possession of an undisclosed sum of cash and a pepper spray. He subsequently admitted his involvement in the offences. The other man remains on the loose.

The police praised the action of the alert woman local resident who informed them and said no one should hesitate to ring 117 if they saw anything suspicious.