SHARE
COPY LINK

PICKPOCKET

Arrest after Stockholm ‘thief’ punches and spits at mum

A man accused of hitting a mother in front of her two toddlers at Stockholm's Gamla Stan subway station because she tried to stop him from pickpocketing has been arrested.

Arrest after Stockholm 'thief' punches and spits at mum
A subway pulling out of Gamla Stan subway station where the attack happened. Photo: Hasse Holmberg/TT
The suspect was taken in for questioning on Friday after surveillance camera footage of the attack on January 5th grabbed global headlines.
 
In the video, first shared by Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, a man is seen approaching a woman pensioner just after she rummages in an open bag and starts using her mobile phone, while she is walking up a flight of stairs at the Gamla Stan (Old Town) metro station in central Stockholm.
 
When a younger woman, accompanied by two small children, becomes wary of his actions and approaches him, he then turns on her. As well as pushing her in the face, he spits at her.
 
“I have worked as a police officer for over 40 years, this is among the worst things I have seen,” Stefan Tellqvist, a police officer working on the case told Aftonbladet just ahead of the arrest.
 
“I will get him, if it's the last thing I do,” he added.
 
Police said that the suspect was traced following a tip-off from a member of the public.
 
“He was arrested in northern Stockholm in the afternoon,” Towe Hägg, a spokesperson for Stockholm police, confirmed to the TT news agency.