The Dutch police recently arrested a criminal group consisting of 5 Romanian citizens who used a so-called "Romanian method" to steal electronic products from moving cars. In 2012 DIICOT published a recording of this method, which you can see in the video clip below, but it is not known if this new criminal group used the same method, or a modified one, to steal the objects.
After the arrest of the thieves and the search of their home, the Dutch police discovered iPhone terminals worth 590.000 dollars, but also multiple Van Gogh paintings. The thieves were arrested in a Dutch village called Otterlo, which is near the Kröller-Müller Museum, which houses one of the largest collections of Van Gogh paintings in Europe, after the Van Gogh museum.
The police announced that iPhone terminals worth 500.000 euros, 590.000 dollars, had been stolen in a robbery that took place just a week before. The thieves drove a car very close to a transport truck, broke its door and transferred the iPhone terminals to their own car, in order to sell them later, but at the moment it is hard to say where they could have sold so many units.
The police announced that similar raids are carried out in other European locations following similar robberies, but this is the only known case in which Romanians are involved. Considering that the "Romanian method" proved to be effective in the past, but also now, it is possible that other criminal groups will use it, although it is difficult to say how successful they will be in escaping unpunished.
"Dutch police arrested five Romanian men suspected of stealing iPhones worth 500,000 euros ($590,000) in a dangerous heist on a moving truck, a spokesman said Monday. The five men, aged from 33 to 43, allegedly stole the iPhones in a late-night raid a week ago by driving a modified van so close to the delivery truck that one of the suspects was able to clamber across the van's hood and break into the truck while it drove along a Dutch road."
