Swedish media says crooks from Estonia caused 80 million kronor worth of harm.
On October 27th 2010 family of Stefan Bengtsson, a well known entrepreneur in Sweden and co-owner (by 0.66 percent) in fast fashion chain H&M, had a frightening time. At least that’s the way the billionaire later recalled it.
Just back from a trip, the family was taking a rest in their luxury villa in Värmdö, Stockholm, as Tallinner and car thief Aleksandr Gogarev entered the yard with another man never identified.
To get inside the house, a time-honoured burglar trick was done: window hinges pressed open with screwdriver. The alarm went off. It was 6:41 in the morning. By this, the thieves were not taken aback. Snatching car keys from the cupboard in the corridor, the men hopped into vehicles and drove off.
It was a royal haul: Porsche Panamera Turbo worth 1.5 Swedish kronor, and a grey Lamborghini Murciélago – 2.5 million kronor. This is an once-in-a-lifetime deal for a housebreaker. Or, rather, a never-in-a-lifetime deal.
The cars were loaded onto a trailer and taken to harbour of Kapellskär, to board the first ship to Paldiski. Alas (for the crooks), criminal police of Stockholm was right on their heels – Mr Bengtsson having equipped the vehicles with GPS devices, to monitor movement thereof. Thus, the police knew exactly where to go get them.
The above kicked off a whole car theft conviction series, in a court of Stockholm at the end of 2013, where Estonian car thieves were robbing wheels from under many a rich Swede in the Stockholm area.
From Estonia to whole wide world
Regrettably, this wasn’t to be the last incident involving the Bengtssons. A mere eleven months later, the same men stole a car from Stefan’s twin brother Jan Bengtsson. The man owning 0.74 percent of H&M shares, and among top ten taxpayers in Sweden in 2013, was robbed of the a boxy Mercedes-Benz 463 jeep worth 900,000 kronor.
Unbelievably, in the welfare state of Sweden, car thefts are no priority for police. Usually, all these qualify for is insurance cases. After insurance has paid compensation to owner, no one is too seriously pursuing the thieves.
This, the professional thieves know very well. Five years ago, tired of the non-stop interest by Estonian criminal police, car thieves of Tallinn decided it was easier to do the job abroad i.e. where they do not attract such constant interest.
And, indeed: the probable link of Stockholm serial thefts with Estonia was first spotted by our own Central Criminal Police.
«We spotted the pattern, that new BMWs and Porsches were moving through ports of Tallinn and Paldiski, which could have been stolen,» said Ago Leis, proceedings bureau chief at Central Criminal Police. «We then mentioned to our Swedish colleagues that they may have a problem. They checked the data and said they agreed.»
In the criminal chain, Estonia was merely a transit country. From here, the cars were taken to Lithuania, where they were prepared for border-crossing and afterwards sent along towards the rising sun. As revealed by investigations, cars stolen in Stockholm travelled all the way to Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Belarus, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and even Lebanon.
The system was thorough. The cars were equipped with documents and number plate duplicates issued, in Estonia or elsewhere in Europe, to like models. This was supposed to erase doubts, at border checks. When danger arose to be caught in Stockholm, they drove to Lapland, the Swedish-Finnish border, crossing the line in Tornio where the checks are scarce. Then, off to Helsinki and by ship to Tallinn. (more)
Read the whole story here:
http://news.postimees.ee/2730888/estonian-car-thieves-plague-elite-of-stockholm
Siource: Postimees - Risto Berendson