theft

A detainee set a matrass on fire in his cell at a police station in Meppel on Thursday afternoon. The smoke set off the fire alarm and police officers had to leave the station on Eendrachtsraat. When the fire brigade arrived, the fire was already extinguished, Dagblad van het Noorden reports.

The fire starter was arrested earlier on Thursday for theft. According to the police, he was searched multiple times before being put in the cell, but still managed to smuggle a lighter in by hiding it in one of his body cavities. The suspect was transferred to the detention center in Assen.

The police arrested a total of 38 people during Amsterdam Pride this past weekend, including 17 pickpockets. Six people were arrested for assault, eight for other types of theft, four for sailing under the influence of alcohol, and one for being unable to identify himself. Four of the detainees are suspected in "LGBTQ-related cases", the police said in a statement. 

Four police officers sustained minor injuries while arresting a group of four suspects of theft. The suspects were in possession of multiple phones and bank cards.

The driver of a stolen car crashed into two police cars while being chased through Tilburg on Wednesday evening. He also tried to hit a motorcycle officer with the car. The chase ended when the car thief hit a tree. The 28-year-old man from Tilburg was arrested, Brabants Dagblad reports.

The police chased the man through Tilburg Zuid. The chase ended at the junction Ringbaan Zuid and Winkler Prinsstraat. Officers had to use pepper spray on the man before being able to arrest him. The suspect was taken to a police station and the stolen car was confiscated.

The number of registered crimes in the Netherlands decreased again last year and is now back at the level of 1980, Statistics Netherlands reported on Monday. Crime in the Netherlands increased steadily at the start of this century, but decreased considerably over the past few years. Last year 49 crimes were registered per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to 93 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2001 and 2002, NOS reports.

An investigation into money laundering and stolen goods possession against a 44-year-old Bulgarian man and his 43-year-old wife, both living in The Hague, led the police to solving of over 260 smartphone thefts in the Netherlands. The phones were sold in a store in Bulgaria with the striking name "Occasion Den Haag", the police said in a statement on Friday.

Last year seven people from different Dutch cities reported their smartphones being stolen by pickpockets. The 'find my iPhone' app showed that all phones were at the same address in Schilderswijk, The Hague.

Late last week the police tracked down two bitcoin miners that were stolen from Eindhoven in a home in Vlijmen. A man was arrested for the possession of stolen property, the police announced in a statement on Wednesday.

A bitcoin miner is a powerful computer used to approve global transactions in the bitcoin network. Owners who use their computers for bitcoin mining, are rewarded in the form of bitcoin or other cryptocurrency.

The police released razor-sharp photos of a man wanted for stealing thousands of euros from a locker at Amsterdam Centraal in May. After months of investigation, the police are still unable to identify the man and now hope that information from the public can help.

According to the police, the man stole a few thousand euros from a locker in a business space belonging to a restaurant at the station. The owner of the locker withdrew the money from his bank before starting work that day, May 26th, and stored it in his locker. He wanted to buy new things for his home the next day.

Henk Kuipers, the leader of outlaw motorcycle club No Surrender, was arrested in his home in Emmen on Tuesday morning. The 53-year-old man is suspected of assault, extortion, threats, violent theft and forgery. A 59-year-old man from Sneek was also arrested on suspicion of forgery and extortion, the Public Prosecutor announced.

A 39-year-old father from Helmond was sentenced to 90 days in prison, 88 of which conditionally suspended, and 160 hours of community service for assaulting his daughter's ex-boyfriend and making him walk away naked, ANP reports.

The incident happened late last year. The man's daughter told him that the 17-year-old boy had nude photos and videos of her on his phone. Afraid that the boy would spread these images, the father demanded that he hand over his phone. When he refused, the father punched and pushed him, forced him to take off his clothes and then sent him away, naked. 

An employee committing theft was the most common reason for dismissal with immediate effect in the Netherlands over the past 12 months, the Volkskrant reports after studying 194 published lawsuits conducted in this period.

Nearly a fifth of these cases, 18 percent, involved stealing, though the severity of the theft varied widely. In a few cases employees were fired for stealing a bag of chips or a pack of cookies, in one case the employee embezzled 55 thousand euros. 

An amount of 60 thousand euros was stolen from a crawl space in the home of 95-year-old Bets Hoogveld in Gelderland. The money was in 12 envelopes, each containing 5 thousand euros, in a money box, Omroep Gelderland reports.

Hoogveld used to keep the money in the bank. But as she earned hardly any interest and still had to pay taxes, her children decided it was better to withdraw it. Last week Bets' son went to check on the cash and found it gone.