Dutch cyclist, 81, hunts down shoplifter

BottleCage · Mar 21, 2007

13:07 20Mar2007 Dutch cyclist, 81, hunts down shoplifter

AMSTERDAM, March 20 (Reuters) - An 81-year-old Dutchman who saw a shoplifter flee a supermarket in The Hague chased after the thief on his bike and crashed into the man to stop him, police said on Tuesday.
Officers said the 81-year-old had observed the shoplifter 29, run from the supermarket with two employees in pursuit.
"The man did not hesitate a moment, followed the fleeing suspect on his bike, rode into his legs, whereupon both fell," police said in a statement.
The cyclist injured his hand and shin in the fall and had to undergo treatment.
The shoplifter was arrested and found to be carrying 122 euros ($162) worth of cosmetics, police said.
Cycling is very popular in the Netherlands. The famously flat country has more bikes than people with each resident riding an average of more than 900 km (560 miles) a year.

the beef · Mar 25, 2007

Heard about this! Cool stuff.

xxamr_corpxx · Mar 25, 2007

You know what would have come in handy? Those dart firing cycle pumps you saw on Munich would be great to disable a shoplifter or a graffitti artist.

JSWin · Sep 17, 2015

Huh, that's a good story too. Like just dive at the guy. Why not? It's like superhuman when you intervene like this. I mean you could get hurt, and he did, or whatever. 81 years old though. Most people younger than him would have just watched and let it happen. Nothing left to loose I guess.

Corzhens · Sep 17, 2015

I am speechless upon reading this thread because I can imagine how old an 81-year old is. It is a record of sorts to catch a thief using a bike, crashing the bike on his target. I'm glad that his injury was only the shin although that is most painful part of the leg. But anyway, the aged hero deserves a medal especially so that the thief is caught because of his heroism. I just hope that the hero would still be able to ride when he recovers fully from his injury.

Susimi · Sep 18, 2015

Pretty good story! I hope that guy is still around. Reminds me of a video I saw where two boys tried to steal a professional cyclists bike (I don't know why because they had bikes of their own...) and he chased them down and rode alongside them while filming them and asking why they tried to steal it. It's pretty funny.

Another old thread but in this case it's a pretty good one.

Damien Lee · Sep 18, 2015

Well done to the 81 year old dutch cyclist for stopping the thief. This is an incredible story and just goes to point out some of the virtues of being a cyclist. Very likely, this gentleman must have been cycling most of his life and was fit enough to quickly catch up to the much younger thief. To top it all, he crashed into the thief to stop him dead in his tracks. Most 81 year old men would be way too frail to pull this off. Once again, I'm very impressed.

Keyan · Sep 20, 2015

That was very inspiring not everyone will take the risk and pursue some shoplifters. The old man may not have the stamina of a 29 year old but he has proven something to all of us.

Susimi · Sep 20, 2015

He has proven that the stereotype of being old and frail is not always true.

It always warms my heart when I read stories like this, really does.

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Dutch cyclist, 81, hunts down shoplifter

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