Translated from an article featured in Vejle Amts Folkeblad 23-Apr-2005
The police is pleading with children and adolescents, who have received expensive gifts, to return them to the Vejle police station.
By Mie Sparre,
The parents of a couple of children alerted the SSP department (co-operation between school, parents and the police that works to prevent youth crime) of Vejle police, because they had discovered that their sons suddenly had a laptop worth 12-13,000 kroner, and a brand new MP3 player, in their possession. The boys claimed that they had received the gifts from a strange man who had been standing at Nørretorv in Vejle, outside McDonald’s and that he gave computers, MP3-players and other expensive electronic gadgets away to the accidental passers by.
This sounded just a little far-fetched, but after some investigation the police has discovered that the boys were indeed right. It has also been established who the strange man was.
It has turned out, that the man is a formerly successful businessman who has been hit by mental illness, that for instance had manifested itself in the form of extreme generosity. It is believed that the man had purchased several computers of the Amitech brand, and that he had planned to donate them away.
Follow your conscience
The man has now been committed for treatment, and the expensive gifts has, through the intervention of the police, been returned to his family.
But should other parents experience that their son or daughter suddenly is listening to music from a brand new MP3 player or is surfing the net on a fancy laptop, the items could come from the same incidence. And detective Peter Krogh, Vejle Police, urges that you follow your conscience and deliver the goods back.
Gifts can be delivered to the guard at the Vejle Police Station, Skolegade.