Five batshit crazy Romanian thieves were arrested in the Netherlands over the weekend after a year-long manhunt. Their crime? Stealing shit from the back of moving trucks.
When I say moving, I mean moving. They quite literally drove a modified van up to the back of trucks as they fanged down the highway, climbed onto the bonnet, opened the doors and transferred the goods into their vehicle. Fuck that.
It’s been dubbed the “Romanian method” by Dutch press and it dates back to 2012. Amazingly, this single gang was responsible for 17 similar heists over the past two years. How has no one died?
Some absolutely insane video footage taken by a police helicopter at night shows how it works. Two of the occupants climb out of the sunroof, one moves down onto the bonnet of the car and the other holds his legs. Sweet Jesus.
This particular heist turned out to be a bit of a failure, though, as the bonnet-dweller decided whatever was in the truck wasn’t worth their time. Take a look at the footage below.
The gang were discovered near a huge collection of Van Gogh paintings and in their hideout, police uncovered $739,817 (€500,000) worth of iPhones lifted in the crazy fashion you see above.
It’s unsure if the art was a target for the gang’s next heist, but that prediction appears to rest on the fact that the small village the thieves were staying in – Otterlo – contains the Kröller-Müller Museum, which hosts one of the largest collections of Van Gogh paintings in the world.
You gotta hand it to ’em, it’s one helluva ballsy way to steal shit.
