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Danish police check crime scenes after stepladder used to steal antiques worth millions

Police in northern Zealand have found the owner of a stepladder that was reported to have been used in a robbery worth up to ten million kroner from a mansion in Gentofte near Copenhagen last week.

Published: 13 September 2018 19:35 CEST

Danish police check crime scenes after stepladder used to steal antiques worth millions

Marks on the side of the ladder helped plice to find the owner. Photo: Nordsjællands Politi

The development moves forward police investigations into the crime, which took place during Friday night or early on Saturday last week.

Thieves used the stepladder, which was stolen, to climb from the garden of the house to the first floor, from where they broke into the property.

The burglars escaped with antique silverware worth up to ten million kroner.

“This means we now have two crime scenes and we believe the suspect is the same for both,” lead investigator Henrik Sejer said.

The owner of the stepladder was ruled out of police suspicion for what is being treated as a professional crime. The stepladder has been sent for forensic examination.

“There will be new investigations because we have found the place where the stepladder was stolen from,” Sejer said, adding that the new crime scene would be examined for fingerprints and DNA evidence.

Police declined to reveal the location the stepladder was stolen from or the distacnce between the two suspected crime scenes.

The owner of the silverware has offered a reward of three million kroner for the return of the valuable items.

READ ALSO: Stolen 'world's most expensive' vodka bottle found empty at Danish building site

Why Copenhagen police say crime is on the up in Christiania

Copenhagen Police arrested three men on Saturday for selling cannabis on Pusher Street in the alternative enclave of Christiania, as they continue their efforts to stamp out the area’s former open-air cannabis market.

According to police, 875 people were arrested for selling cannabis in the first 11 months of 2022, more than in any other year over the past four years.

A possible explanation for the increase in arrests could be that the rewards for operating hash stands have receded, according to a police spokesperson.

“It is extremely unattractive to stand out there, and therefore a lot of new people come in who have no idea what it is all about. Many of them come from outside the catchment area, and some of them are peripherally associated with a criminal group,” Simon Hansen, head of a Copenhagen Police special unit, told newspaper Politiken.

“It’s a bit – in inverted commas – ‘easier’ for us to catch these people,” he said.

Around half of the stalls in the street are linked to various gangs and biker gangs, such as Satudarah, Bandidos, Hells Angels and Loyal To Familia, with the rest run by people living in Christiania, the Berlingske newspaper reported earlier this month.

The trend of rising crime occurs against a background of potential housing develop in Christiania, as the enclave’s residents decide on a plan to put affordable housing in the area.

Copenhagen Police last year told news wire Ritzau that the majority of people who are arrested within Christiania come from socially underprivileged or marginalised backgrounds.

They are exploited in gang and biker circles, resulting in them in some cases operating the illicit hash market stalls, according to the police.

Conflicts between organised crime groups have reportedly become more frequently aired in the Pusher Street market.

READ ALSO: Denmark’s ‘freetown’ Christiania hangs onto soul, 50 years on

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