Thief running away with bag full of money caught by off-duty police officer

On Monday, May 10, a man was transporting a large sum of money borrowed by his employer. TVN24 reporter Piotr Borowski said it was exactly 800,000 zlotys in cash. The banknotes were inside a shopping bag which the employee left in his car. Around 4 p.m. he stopped the car at Kościuszki street, close to a corner of Struga street. City CCTV captured him going to one of the shops. He didn't even make it to the door, when two men ran towards the car. The footage shown to the tvn24.pl portal shows the suspects breaking the rear window, grabbing the bag and running away in the direction of Wolności Square.

"An off-duty police officer witnessed the theft. He immediately went after the suspects" - said Marcin Fiedukowicz of Łódź police.

He blocked the robbers' way with his private car and focused on the one carrying the bag. A video from the man's dash cam shows a bundle of 100-zloty banknotes flying by.

"A scuffle broke out and the attacker hit the officer, but the latter immediately overpowered the thief by throwing him on the pavement which made him drop the knife" - Fiedukowicz said.

A passerby helped the policeman and soon after other officers arrived at the scene.

In the end, the stolen money was returned to the company owners. The thief turned out to be a 45-year-old citizen of Georgia.

"Based on the gathered evidence, the prosecutor has charged the 45-year-old with robbery, which carries up to 10 years in prison" - Marcin Fiedukowicz said.

The court agreed to the prosecutor's request and ordered the arrest of the Georgian citizen. The police were also pursuing other lines of the inquiry, such as how the suspects could have known about a valuable package in the car.

Fiedukowicz said Łódź police were doing their best to detain the other suspect.