Swedish fictional detectives like Wallander and Lisbeth Salander are famous worldwide. But recently real-life Swedish police were completely puzzled by a mysterious crime. Somebody was stealing expensive shoes from shoe shops in Sweden – but not pairs of shoes, only the left shoes, the ones which were on displays.
The first robbery took place in a shopping mall in Malmö, Sweden’s third-largest city. Staff at the shoe shop saw two men stealing at their boutique. They escaped with seven left shoes which – if paired with the right ones – were worth £900.
In the end it was shop assistants who pointed the police in the right direction – to Denmark, where shops traditionally display the right shoe in their shop windows. “We noticed that left shoes were disappearing in the past, but we never caught the thieves,” said a shop assistant. “Since we know that Danish stores display the right shoes, we thought that the matching shoes were probably disappearing as well in stores in Denmark.” Malmo, home to 125 shoe shops, is only a 30-minute train ride away from Copenhagen, which has several hundred shops, and many brands are sold in both cities.
Yesterday police finally announced that they had arrested the men responsible for the robberies. But Ms Johansson, a Swedish shoe shop owner, fears that shoe shop robberies will increase this year. “Shoes are attractive to steal – they are easy to move and easy to sell and they have become very expensive lately. Also many stores have cut the number of shop assistants they employ.”
Police in Malmo have thought of asking Danish shoe shops to also display the left shoe. But this won’t work. All the thieves will have to do is move to Germany – where they also display the right shoe.