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Stockholm bike theft sparks low-speed Segway chase

The Local Sweden
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Stockholm bike theft sparks low-speed Segway chase
Another man on a Segway in Stockholm. Photo: Leif R Jansson/TT

How did the Stockholm security guard catch the bicycle thief? He got on his Segway, of course.

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No, that's not the beginning of a riddle.

It's what actually happened when a security guard at the posh shopping mall Sturegallerian in the Swedish capital spotted a man trying to steal a bicycle in the Stureplan square.

The would-be thief was busy sawing off the lock with the help of an angle grinder when the segway-borne security guard rolled up to him to ask what he was in the process of doing.

“The guard went up to him and frightened the culprit who immediately escaped,” Emma Stenholm, police officer in Stockholm's Norrmalm district, told one of the city's newspapers, Stockholm Direkt.

He ran through the shopping mall and the guard took up the chase on two wheels. But the paper reported that the latter found himself defeated after it turned out that the suspect's feet were faster than his Segway.

However, several surprised shoppers had witnessed the highly unusual chase – which took place on Sunday but only hit the headlines this week – and were able to describe the man to police officers.

“Thanks to the witnesses he was later arrested in an alley nearby,” said Stenholm.

The man now faces suspicions of attempted theft, a narcotics offence and handling stolen goods, alternatively theft.

When the Segway, which does not go much faster than 20 km/h, was first launched in 2001, engineers lauded the device as a future revolution in city transportation.

And while you may think this sounds like a strange story, Stockholm police have been using Segways since 2011. Stockholmers themselves love it so much they even organize Segway Polo competitions.

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