In a press release, Dortmund Police wrote that the two truck drivers had “caught fuel thieves in the act” in the early hours of Sunday morning.
According to the police’s initial report, several truck drivers were staying overnight at a designated parking area at an IKEA warehouse on Ellinghauser Strasse.
At around 12.30 am, one driver spotted three people by a parked truck that were in the process stealing diesel from the vehicle’s tank using a hose.
A “scuffle” then broke out between two truck drivers and the thieves. One of the drivers, a 31-year-old driver from Belarus, was slightly injured during the encounter. Two of the fuel thieves then fled on foot, while the other used a car to escape.
After the truck drivers contacted the police about the incident, officers were able to track down and arrest three male suspects. The men, aged 26, 31 and 37, were all from Romania.
Officers also found three parked cars with Romanian license plates in the vicinity of the IKEA warehouse, which are thought to the belong to the perpetrators.
In one of the cars, officers found suspected stolen goods in the form of vodka bottles and IKEA furniture. The police officers seized all three cars and the suspected stolen property.
The three suspects spent the night in custody and will be charged under suspicion of robbery.
Photo by mastrminda on Pixabay (illustrative image)