Online friends of Gerrit Jan van D. are shocked by the accusations that he kept his children trapped on a farm in Ruinerwold for nine years. They describe him as a nice man who was "good to his children" to newspaper AD. The Telegraaf found - now deleted - posts on Facebook and LinkedIn that indicate that son Jan visited Canada in 2015 and earlier this year, indicating that he maybe was not being held captive, according to the newspaper.
Weird
Oct 22 '19 09:52
Oct 21 '19 15:08
The 67-year-old father of six adult children kept concealed on a remote farm was ordered back into custody as the investigation into the case continues. The magistrate presiding over the case sent Gerritt Jan van D. back to jail for a 14-day period, which may be further extended at the court's discretion, the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
Oct 21 '19 09:25
Gerrit Jan van D., a man found living with six of his children in a hidden space on a farm in Ruinerwold last week, recorded a series of religious videos in 2006. In these videos he speaks of a spiritual war that is not quite over, but that god declared to be 'won'. The Telegraaf discovered these videos and posted excerpts on its site.
Oct 18 '19 17:20
In the past a school attendance officer from the municipality of Zwartewaterland investigated the family found living in complete isolation on a farm in Ruinerwold earlier this week. The truancy officer saw no reason to intervene at the time and concluded that te situation was "in order", mayor Eddy Bilder of Zwartwaterland said on Friday, De Stentor reports.
Oct 18 '19 09:44
The family of Gerrit Jan van D., the father who was found living in a hidden room on a farm in Ruinerwold with six of his children, is dismayed by the events surrounding Van D., they said in a statement to RTL Nieuws. They haven't had contact with Van D. since the 1980s and had no idea what he was up to. "The father of G.J. is demented and stays in a closed institution."
Oct 18 '19 08:51
On Thursday the police arrested a second suspect in the investigation into the family found living in a hidden room on a farm in Ruinerwold. The suspect is the father of the family, 67-year-old Gert Jan van D. He is suspected of depriving his six children of their physical freedom, and assault by harming the health of others, the Drenthe police announced.
Oct 16 '19 17:31
The tenant of a farm where a family was found concealed is suspected of depriving people of their physical freedom, and harming the health of others, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said on Wednesday. The suspect is reportedly 58-year-old Austrian man Josef B., according to multiple published reports.
Oct 16 '19 10:08
"I have never experienced anything like this", mayor Roger de Groot of municipality De Wolden said about a family found in a farm in Ruinerwold. The family, a father and six children, lived a "withdrawn existence" in "secluded provisional spaces" in the farm for nine years, the mayor said in a press conference, NOS reports
Oct 15 '19 13:10
The police discovered a father living with his six children in an 'end of times' bunker on a farm in Ruinerwold. The family, who hasn't seen the outside world for years, was discovered after the oldest son managed to get away on Sunday and went to a local pub for help, RTV Drenthe reports.
Oct 4 '19 10:10
The Dutch checkers team was held captive in a hotel on the Ivory Coast, where they were participating in the checkers World Championship, for hours on Thursday. The bill for the hotel was not paid and as a result, the hotel would not let any of its guests leave, Dutch checkers association KNDB said on Facebook.
Sep 13 '19 15:50
Budget airline Transavia weighed the passengers of five flights from Eindhoven Airport on Friday in an experiment to improve its fuel calculations and reduce its CO2 emissions, Eindhoven Airport said on Twitter.
"Through a more precise determination of the weight on board, the fuel calculation can be performed even more accurately, with the goal of less CO2 emissions", the airport said. Participation in the experiment is voluntary.
Sep 11 '19 16:59
An investigation into a grizzly report of a dead body wrapped in plastic garbage bags determined that the alleged corpse was actually a doll. Police responded to the underground garbage containers outside a nine-story apartment building on President Kennedylaan in Amsterdam Zuid at about 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday where the "mortal remains" were found.
"Extensive research was then done on site, which turned out to be a doll."
Sep 3 '19 15:52
Authorities investigating a report of a puppy being kicked to death for no apparent reason said the person who told the story made up the incident. The person walking the dog, a young boy with a developmental disability, pulled the leash too hard killing the animal, according to AD.
"Presumably an unfortunate coincidence led to the death of the dog," police said in a statement later on Tuesday.
Aug 29 '19 12:40
A man from Slovakia ended up in a Rotterdam police station on Wednesday night, looking for help. The man was on his way to visit his mother in the English town of Rotherham, but instead accidentally bought a ticket to Rotterdam, the police said on Twitter.
The traveler was accidentally sold a ticket to the second-largest city in the Netherlands because "both his articulation and topographical knowledge are not very good", the police said. The man showed up at the police station with no money, and also no ability to speak either Dutch or English.
Aug 23 '19 14:10
A home in the Utrecht neighborhood of Lombok under which the police found a mysterious hidden tunnel system of some 18 meters long, was recently sold, the broker who handled the transaction said to the Telegraaf. According to the broker, the seller did not know about the secret passages and it is unclear whether the buyer does.
Aug 12 '19 16:10
The fire department in Cadzand, Zeeland extinguished a strange fire in a vacation home on Sunday. The family had picked up some rocks while walking on the beach earlier that day and put them in the bottom of a pram. Back in their vacation home in Nieuwvliet-Bad, the rocks spontaneously caught fire. It turns out the rocks were covered in phosphorous, the fire department said on Facebook.
Aug 9 '19 08:01
On Wednesday a man gave a 2-year-old child a teddy bear as a gift in the Zeeland town of Zuidzande. The child's parents later found a camera and microphone in the toy, the Zeeuws-Vlaanderen police said on Facebook.
The young family were at a flea market in Zuidzande when the stranger approached them and said the child was very cute. He gave the child a small teddy bear. Later in the day, the parents felt something hard in the teddy bear and opened it up. They found a small camera with a microphone hidden inside, with the teddy bear's nose being the lens of the camera.
Aug 8 '19 16:00
The police made an embarrassing mistake when sending a mass SMS on Thursday morning. In the SMS about a house fire in Nieuwleusen, the police accidentally included a link to a pornographic web page instead of to the police website, authorities confirm.
Nearly two thousand people received the SMS in regards to the July 14 fire which left a 22-year-old man dead. In an attempt to canvass for witnesses, the police sent the message to anyone whose phone had registered in the vicinity of the crime scene the morning the fire took place.
Aug 6 '19 14:20
Two young women were chatting in Florapark in Haarlem during the early hours of Saturday morning when they were confronted by a naked man. The man suddenly appeared from behind a tree. "At first I thought it was a deer", 22-year-old Romana said to the Telegraaf. But she quickly realized it was a man who "only had shoes on".
Romana and her 23-year-old friend Evelien were chatting in the park at around 4:00 a.m. on Saturday after a night out. They were filming a video for Snapchat when the man suddenly appeared. He took a few steps towards them, but ran off when they screamed.
Jul 22 '19 14:30
A Dutch tradition of young scouts finding their way back to camp through the woods at night was featured in a New York Times article of obscure traditions around the world. The serious tone of journalist Ellen Barry's article on "dropping" left Americans stunned, and Dutch laughing.
"A peculiarly Dutch summer rite: Children let loose in the Night Woods. It may sound extreme, but it's normal in the Netherlands", Barry started her article about how she joined a scouting team in Utrecht for a dropping.
Jul 15 '19 08:14
A 12-year-old Dutch boy with no ticket and no boarding pass managed to board a British Airways plane to Los Angeles at Heathrow Airport in London on Sunday afternoon. He was caught out shortly before the plane took off, when a stewardess asked to see his ticket so she could show him to his seat, The Telegraph reports.
Jul 8 '19 15:20
The police in the Gelderland town of Epe had their hands full on Monday morning trying to catch an escaped kangaroo. The animal was spotted wandering around the N309 highway. "The biped is fast and it has not been possible to catch it", the police said on Facebook.
So far the police managed to identify the kangaroo's owner. Actually catching the Australian marsupial turned out to be the the harder task. The kangaroo is still on the loose.
Motorists driving around Epe are advised to keep an eye out for the kangaroo.
Jun 21 '19 09:19
Myrna Reinhard, a 24-year-old medical student from Nijmegen, died in a bizarre accident while vacationing in Vietnam this week. The young woman was electrocuted while taking a shower in the hostel where she was staying in the popular coastal town of Hoi An, AD reports.
Jun 13 '19 16:20
A arrestee was so impressed with the police officers in Den Helder that arrested him, that he sent the police station flowers with a 5 star review, the Den Helder police said with accompanying photos on Facebook.
What B. was arrested for, was not revealed. But he was certainly treated well. "Thanks for the good service,definitely five stars", B. wrote in a note sent with the flowers. "I just don't want to come back. Regards B."
