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Swedish toddler's ride in bag sparks burglar hunt

The Local Sweden
The Local Sweden - [email protected]
Swedish toddler's ride in bag sparks burglar hunt
Axel, 2, recreates the moment he was confused with a robber's loot. Photo: Torkel Kristoffers.

A two-year-old was mistaken for a burglar's loot, while a neighbour thought his Stockholm businessman father was a robber, because he had grown a beard while on paternity leave.

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The tired toddler had asked to be carried the last 30 metres to a friend's home, where he and his father were popping in for a drink after dropping his sister off at kindergarten.
 
Rather than opting for a piggy back, Axel chose to take a ride in his dad's shopping bag. But another neighbour didn't recognize the pair and called the emergency services, thinking that his father Torkel was a burglar and that the tot was his loot.
 
Police later turned up at the family's home in Stockholm suburb Sundbyberg.
 

Axel and his father recreating the scene. Photo: Torkel Kristoffers. 
 
"It was very dramatic, they had adrenaline in their eyes," Torkel Kristoffers, 39, told The Local on Thursday.
 
"They stormed in and said they were looking for an unknown man spotted in the neighbourhood. At first I thought they were maybe talking about some new staff working for my cleaning firm, which is based just across the road," he said, adding that Axel had been in the hallway playing with a toy police car at the time.
 
"But then one of the officers said the suspect was wearing dark clothes who had been spotted at this address and I looked at down myself and realized I was dressed all in black," he said.
 
"'They can't mean me!' I said to a friend I was with and just started to laugh. Then I asked the police 'did the suspect happen to be carrying a red bag on his shoulder because if so, then you are looking for me!".
 
Kristoffers said that police quickly realized their mistake, before one officer simply said "it's cool, it's cool" and made a swift departure.
 
 
The father-of-two told The Local that he believes his neighbour didn't recognize him on account of a "hipster beard" that had gone "outlaw" and "wild" during his paternity leave. 
 
"I have just let it grow and grow!" he chuckled.
 
 
Torkel Kristoffers and his "wild" beard. Photo: Torkel Kristoffers. 
 
But he insisted he was not upset with the woman who called police, adding that it was "a good thing that she wants to make sure the neighbourhood is a safe place".
 
Barely able to contain his laughter, he said he couldn't believe that the story had made the national media and would "definitely" use the tale in a wedding speech, should his son get married.
 
The unfortunate incident took place on Tuesday morning, with Stockholm police telling Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter the following day that there had been "no crime at all".
 
"When they met at the man's place they found a toddler running and playing around the house," confirmed press spokesperson Eva Nilsson.
 
"It is not a crime to carry someone around in a bag," she added.
 
Police in Sweden also got in a muddle earlier this year when they confused some 21st birthday balloons with propaganda for the extremist group Isis, also known as IS.

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