When the Amsterdam Centrum-Jordaan police were called in to a casino in the area earlier this week, the thought they were to deal with a difficult customer. But at the scene, the situation turned out to be quite different - they had to deal with a massive snake.
"At the bag check a woman appeared to be carrying something very strange with her. She had a huge snake in her bag!! Not really something to walk around in public with in the evening hours", the police said on Facebook.
Dog trainers and animal experts are concerned about the University of Amsterdam's plan to create a puppy room in its library where students can cuddle with puppies and get rid of their stress during exam week. The puppies will indeed decrease students' stress, but being cuddled by dozens of students may not be good for the puppies' welfare.
On Thursday the police arrested a man suspected of grabbing a woman's breast on President Kennedylaan in Amsterdam on September 10th. The 26-year-old victim managed to record a video of her attacker, and the man turned himself in after the police threatened to make the video public.
The police are looking for witnesses who can give information about the whereabouts of Churisan Allen from Utrecht. The 45-year-old Utrecht man disappeared on April 10th of this year. The police believe he may have fallen victim to a crime. His case was discussed on television program Opsporing Verzocht on Tuesday.
A large shipment of stem cells will be slowly and carefully transported from Leiden to Amsterdam, under police escort, on Wednesday. This is expected to cause some inconvenience for motorists on the A4 highway, where at least one lane will be closed, a spokesperson for blood bank Sanquin told NU.nl.
The transport will start around noon, the spokesperson said.
The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam will start restoring Rembrandt van Rijn's famous painting The Night Watch in July next year. The painting will be restored in the hall where it's currently hanging, and visitors to the museum are welcome to watch the process. The restoration can also be followed online, the museum announced on Tuesday.
The Night Watch will be restored in a clear glass chamber designed by French architect Jean Michel Wilmotte. It's last major restoration happened 40 years ago, following an attack on the painting in 1975.
A motorist became unwell while driving on the A5 highway at Westpoort on Monday morning. Other motorists saw it happen and pushed his car to a standstill against the guardrail. They then provided first aid while the emergency services responded. The police called it a "heroic act" on Twitter.
"We are very happy that people were so alert and helpful", a police spokesperson said to AT5. "They prevented worse from happening."
Five people were arrested after a brawl between Dutch and German football supporters on Spegelgracht in Amsterdam on Saturday. Three Dutch and two Germans were arrested based on camera footage, NH Nieuws reports.
The brawl happened at cafe Hans en Grietje. "The two parties, I estimate around 40, 50 started hitting each other. I first saw cans of beer flying through the air, but soon it became chairs and tables", a cafe employee said to the newspaper.
The riot police had to intervene and break up the fight. The cafe sustained damage, but opened as usual on Sunday.
A firebomb was thrown into restaurant Hotel Buiten on Sloterplas in Amsterdam on Friday night. Three employees of the restaurant had to go to hospital with hearing problems after the explosion. "Fortunately no permanent damage to staff or guests, but we are of course very shocked and we have no idea who is responsible for this", the restaurant management said in a letter stuck to the restaurant's door, Het Parool reports.
The court in Alkmaar sentenced 26-year-old Lars de R. from Krommenie to four years in prison and institutionalized psychiatric treatment for sexually abusing 10 underage boys in Netherlands, India and Croatia, NOS reports.
De R. became famous when he reached the finals of talent show Holland's Got Talent at the age of 16 in 2009. The court found him guilty of having sex with ten boys multiple times over the course of eight years. The youngest victim was 4-years-old at the time.
Amsterdam has to participate in the national experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation. If the Dutch capital, with the largest coffeeshop market in the Netherlands, does not participate, the experiment will fail, mayor Femke Halsem said in a city council debate on the issue on Thursday, Het Parool reports.
The police arrested a 20-year-old man from Amsterdam on Thursday for a fatal shooting in which 19-year-old rapper Bolle was killed on Wednesday afternoon. Whether the arrested man is suspected of being the gunman or of another role, is not yet clear, Het Parool reports.
The Human Environment and Transport inspectorate, police, Public Prosecutor, and Tax Authorities are investigating large-scale taxi fraud in the Amsterdam area. Hundreds of illegal taxis are driving around Amsterdam and Schiphol airport, the Inspectorate said to newspaper AD.
Dutch municipalities, the police and security services are currently actively monitoring at least 160 radicalized Muslims. Amsterdam accounts for the biggest share of that number, with 59 radicalized people currently under the municipality's eye, the Volkskrant reports.
A man was killed in a shooting on Dostojevskisingel in Amsterdam Zuidoost on Wednesday afternoon, the Amsterdam police said on Twitter. Area residents say the victim is a 19-year-old rap musician and producer. People on social media claiming to be friends with the victim say the person killed is named “Bolle”, and that he was shot in the gut during an argument on the street.
The famous I Amsterdam letters on the Museumplein have to go, according to a motion filed by the GroenLinks faction in Amsterdam. The slogan has become a symbol for mass tourism, the party finds. The motion seems to have support from the D66, PvdA and SP - a majority in the city council, Het Parool reports.
With the motion, GroenLinks asked the office of mayor and aldermen to remove the I Amsterdam letters from the whole city and to stop all city marketing activities under the slogan of I Amsterdam.
Since the beginning of 2017 there's been 16 incidents involving a hand grenade at a Dutch business, and in ten of these incidents the hand grenade exploded, Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security said in response to parliamentary questions, RTL Nieuws reports.
D66 parliamentarian Maarten Groothuizen wanted to know how many times criminals used hand grenades to threaten or pressure business owners in the Netherlands. He also asked how often a municipality closed a business after such an incident.
The police had information that a serious crime was being planned shortly before the building housing Panorama's editorial offices in Amsterdam was shot at with a rocket launcher in June. When the attack happened, the police were already keeping an eye on some of the important suspects, Het Parool reports.
The municipality of Amsterdam is planning to build around 5 thousand new homes between Amstelstation and AMC. The homes will be located in the so-called Amstel-III area, between the Johan Cruijff Arena and IKEA, AT5 reports.
The Amstel III-area currently consists mainly of outdated office buildings. These will be demolished for the construction of new homes.
Amsterdam finds the national experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation unfeasible and "risky to public order". The municipality would like to participate in the experiment, but only with other rules, mayor Femke Halsema said in a letter to Ministers Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security and Bruno Bruins for Medical Care and Sports, NOS reports.
A suspect shot by a motorcycle police officer on De Wittenkade in Amsterdam on Tuesday, is Heineken kidnapper 66-year-old Frans Meijer. The second suspect arrested is his son, the Telegraaf reports based on sources.
In the next three years Amsterdam will deliver all trees cut down in the city to the Stadshout Foundation, which will process the trees in a sustainable manner and give the wood new life n the city in the form of street furniture or decoration, the municipality announced in a press release.
A motorcycle police officer shot a suspect on De Wittenkade in Amsterdam on Tuesday. This happened after a "suspicious situation", the Amsterdam police said on Twitter. A second suspect was arrested.
The motorcycle cop responded to a report of a suspicious situation, the police said in a statement. He noticed two men walking on Van Beuningenstraat. When he addressed them, they ran towards De Wittenkade, the police said.
A photo showing former United States President Barrack Obama on an Amsterdam tram with a sleeping student next to him, was massively shared online over the past days. But the photo was faked. The real photo, featuring no sleeping student, was taken in the city of Saint Paul in Minnesota in 2014 by then White House photographer Pete Souza, AT5 reports.
