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Underwear-clad Norway man foils theft in -17C

A car thief in Norway got more than he bargained with when the vehicle's owner, dressed only in his underwear, clung heroically to the vehicle's roof in temperatures of -17C to foil the theft.

Published: 21 January 2016 08:34 CET

Underwear-clad Norway man foils theft in -17C

In a scene worthy of a Hollywood movie, a 25-year-old Norwegian man was woken on Tuesday night by the unwelcome sound of his car's engine starting up, police reported.

Without stopping to dress, he dashed out into the snow, grabbed the car door handle and managed to clamber onto the roof, where he clung on for several kilometres as the car travelled at up to 90 kilometres per hour.

He then smashed the back window with his knee and grappled with the thief before the car slid into a safety barrier on a bridge and came to halt.

“Bruce Willis wouldn't have managed that,” commented Jan Nesland, police chief in Randesund, a town in southern Norway where the incident took place.

“It's not what we advise people to do but now he's done it, it's really an incredible story,” he told the television channel TV2.

Police are questioning the thief, who was reportedly already known to the authorities for other robberies.

The car owner, whose name has been withheld, received hospital treatment for cuts and scrapes to the knees and legs — not to mention the cold.

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Norwegian police charge Olympic champion's father for domestic violence

Jakob Ingebrigtsen and two of his brothers, Henrik and Filip, who are also athletes, shocked Norway last October when they accused their father of being violent.

“We grew up with a very aggressive and authoritarian father, who used physical violence and threats as part of his upbringing,” the brothers wrote in an op-ed for newspaper VG. “We still feel a sense of discomfort and fear that we have felt since childhood,” they added.

Police opened a probe into the abuse claims and on Monday said prosecutors had decided to charge Gjert Ingebrigtsen, 58, with domestic violence against one of his children.

According to a source close to the case, the acts in question do not concern the trio of known athletes but another, younger child.

Over a period of four years, from 2018 to 2022, Gjert Ingebrigtsen allegedly manhandled, insulted, threatened and hit the child in the face with his hand or with a towel.

Responding to questions from AFP, Therese Braut Vage, who led the investigation, would not confirm this account.

Police said they had closed investigations into other events concerning the six other children in the home either due to a lack of evidence or, in one case, because the statute of limitations having expired.

Gjert, who coached Jakob until after the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo — where Jakob won the gold — has always denied the accusations against him.

“As far as the dismissed cases, we agree that there is no evidence to prove that Ingebrigtsen committed any wrongdoing,” his lawyer John Christian Elden told AFP on Monday.

“For the rest, Ingebrigtsen disputes the description of the facts on which the indictment is based — and he therefore does not admit his guilt,” he continued in an email.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is the most successful of the three brothers, twice winning gold in the world championships 5000m in 2022 and 2023, as well as the Olympic 1500m gold.

The 23-year-old is also preparing for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Henrik, 33, and Filip, 31, were European champions in the 1500m in 2012 and 2016 respectively.

After breaking with his sons, Gjert Ingebrigtsen shocked Norwegian athletics by becoming the trainer of another runner, Narve Gilje Nordas.

The Norwegian Olympic Committee has said that Gjert will not be granted accreditation for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, as was the case at last year’s World Athletics Championships.

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