AN opportunistic thief intent on robbing a Barcelona restaurant was apprehended by an unlikely obstacle – a stag do of British police officers.
Sergeant Eren Emin, 30, of the Metropolitan Police, was celebrating his stag do with four colleagues from the UK’s largest police force when a man jumped over a restaurant counter and started to pocket a host of electrical goods.
The group of off-duty officers say ‘instinct’ took over as they ran after the thief and caught him before he could escape.
“I think policing is more of an instinct than anything else”, Enfield-based Emin told the PA news agency.
He added: “I’m a police officer. It’s my job. Wherever we are, whether in Spain, it doesn’t matter, I have to do what is right”.
“We were in a restaurant on the main strip, waiting for food to come, and he made his way over to the bar area where the counters are and then he jumped over the counter and that’s when he caught our attention”.
“He started to ransack the tills and take electrical goods such as iPads and iPhones, whatever else was there, before he made his way around and then sprinted outside of the restaurant and instantly we stood up and gave chase”.
“It was a case of just getting him stopped. It’s wrong. What’s wrong is wrong. Common sense has to apply here as well and that’s why we got him detained as quickly as possible”.
“I’m quite known within my organisation for arresting people off duty – in the UK, where I go, I always end up attracting or coming across crime, which is really strange, so for me it’s just another day”, boasted the officer.
The group chased the man 50 metres up the road before detaining the individual.
The male was then taken into custody by the Mossos d’Esquadra, Catalunya’s police force, before the British officers returned to continue celebrating the stag do.
