Polish bike thief’s attempt to evade police by joining cycling race foiled

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

A bicycle thief in Poland tried an unorthodox way of evading capture. Pursued by the local police, he joined the field of a cycling race and even began to catch up with the leaders before he was caught.

Police officers on duty at the Ślężański Mnich – a major one-day event in the town of Sobótka in southwestern Poland that is seen as the curtain-raiser to the Polish road racing season – spotted a man known to them for previous thefts riding off on an expensive-looking bike.

But the 20-year-old ignored officers’ orders to stop and sped away, joining the passing race and attempting to melt into the crowd of cyclists, according to a report from the Wrocław police.

The police set off in hot pursuit, although race participants’ safety remained their primary concern. The thief soon overtook the peloton – the main pack of riders in the race – and so frantically was he pedalling that he even briefly joined the race leaders, the police said.

In an effort to get rid of the evidence, the runaway cyclist threw the bike’s navigation system off the road, but officers were soon able to catch and detain him.

They managed to recover the bike and electronic equipment and return them to their relieved owner, who had bought the bike just two days previously.

The total value of the items stolen was more than 28,000 zloty (€6,600), said the police, who reminded participants and spectators at mass events to take special care with valuable items.

The suspect has admitted a charge of theft, a crime for which he could face up to five years in prison.

Sharing news of the capture, Karolina Gałecka, the spokeswoman for Poland’s interior ministry, said that it had been “an escape doomed to failure…because behind [the thief] was riding a team that always wins, the Polish police”.

While he might have been dreaming of the finish line, the only place he would be ending up was at the local police station, she added.

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: KMP w Wrocławiu

Ben Koschalka

Ben Koschalka is a translator, lecturer, and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.