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Supermarket thieves escape Danish police after cross-country chase

Patrols from three different Danish police regions pursued almost halfway across the country a car in which suspected supermarket thieves were travelling.

Published: 27 October 2017 12:55 CEST

Supermarket thieves escape Danish police after cross-country chase

File photo: Jens Dresling/Polfoto/Ritzau

Between 1:52am and 3:03am on Friday, police in western Denmark were alerted to break-ins at branches of the Fakta supermarket in the towns of Skjern, Nedre Nebel, Varde and Holsted, reports TV Syd.

“We have video from the security system at the Skjern store that shows several people breaking through one of the doors of the Fakta store and stealing money from the cash registers,” duty officer Lars Even of Mid and West Jutland Police told TV Syd.

Following the Skjern heist, an alarm was set off at 2:17am at the Nedre Nebel branch, followed by Varde at 2:35am and finally Holsted at 3:03 am.

Shortly after that, a South Jutland Police patrol made contact with a large black car close to a Fakta store in the town of Vejen.

“The black private car fled and headed towards the motorway, where we pursued it eastwards at high speed. We alarmed South East Jutland Police, who also dispatched cars and took over pursuit with the course headed towards the Little Belt Bridge [connecting Jutland with the island of Funen, ed.]. On the other side of the bridge, Funen Police were ready and continued the chase. But the getaway car increased its speed and escaped somewhere on the Funen motorway, with police cars unable to keep up,” South Jutland Police duty officer Nikolaj Holmkjær told TV Syd on Friday morning.

READ ALSO: Danish police make arrest after finding missing tourist bus

Spanish banker gets jail term for trying to smuggle Picasso masterpiece out of Spain on yacht

Head of a Young Woman by Pablo Picasso Photo: AFP

The court also fined ex-Bankinter head Jaime Botín €52.4 million ($58.4 million), according to the Madrid court ruling issued on January 14th which was made public on Thursday.

It awarded ownership of the work, “Head of a Young Girl”, to the Spanish state.

Botin, 83, is unlikely to go to prison as in Spain first offenders for non-violent crimes are usually spared jail time for sentences of less than two years.

French customs seized the work, which is estimated to be worth €26 million, in July 2015 on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, halting what they said was an attempt by Botin to export it to Switzerland to sell it.

His lawyers argued at the time that he was sending it for storage in a vault in Geneva but the court found him guilty of “smuggling cultural goods” for removing the painting “from national territory without a permit”.

Botin, whose family are one of the founders of the Santander banking group, had been trying since 2012 to obtain authorisation to export the painting.

However Spain's culture ministry refused the request because there was “no similar work on Spanish territory” from the same period in Picasso's life.

In 2015, a top Spanish court sided with the authorities and declared the work of art “unexportable” on the grounds that it was of “cultural interest”.

Picasso painted it during his pre-Cubist phase in Gosol, Catalonia, in 1906. It was bought by Botin in London in 1977.

Botin's lawyers had argued that the work should not be subjected to an export ban since it was acquired in Britain and was on board a British-flagged vessel when it was seized.

When customs officials boarded the yacht, its captain only presented two documents — one of which was the court ruling ordering that the painting be kept in Spain.

The painting is currently stored at the Reina Sofia modern art museum in Madrid, which houses Picasso's large anti-war masterpiece “Guernica”.

READ MORE: Banking family's Picasso seized on Corsica boat

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