Monday, November 07, 2005

Sweden: Cash crisis in city stores

Cash crisis in city stores

The temporary stoppage of cash deliveries and collections by security vehicles in certain parts of the country has led to unusually large quantities of cash at shops, supermarkets and department stores. That is putting business in a high-risk position, said the head of security at the Swedish Federation of Trade, Dick Malmlund. "We have stores which have collections twice a day under normal circumstances," he said. "They haven't had any pick-ups at all since this started last Friday. It means that they are accumulating cash in a big way, which naturally isn't good." Almost half of all cash machines in Sweden's main cities was empty on Sunday. But according to Dick Malmlund the lack of cash did not affect the weekend's sales figures. Purchases with cards were 15-20% higher than usual.

The Swedish Work Environment Authority decided on Friday that all unprotected security deliveries in the country would be stopped until Monday afternoon, when the security companies are to present a new risk assessment to the authorities. "I assume that the security industry understands how serious this is now," said Dick Malmlund before the meeting. "It's not acceptable just to wait and dither with this issue. The must create a system so that they are not exposed to these attacks." The meeting at the Swedish Work Environment Authority will be held after lunch and a decision on the matter is not expected until 3pm at the earliest. In the six years to 2004, more than 450 million kronor were stolen from security vehicles in Sweden. According to European figures, 224 security vehicles were robbed during that period. Only the United Kingdom, France and Poland, countries with far higher populations, experienced more attacks.

Sweden is also fourth if countries are ranked by the total amount stolen, according to Sydsvenskan. This, combined with the fact that Swedish police only catch the robbers in around half of the cases means that the industry is now demanding a series of measures from the authorities. One of the key demands is that the police should coordinate their work across the country. The insurance industry wants the National Police Department to form a special unit with overall responsibility for preventing and following up security vehicle robberies. But the police are opposed to the idea, pointing out that they already have a group dedicated to organised crime, which includes these kinds of robberies. There have still been no arrests for the raid in Bohuslän on Thursday, in which two armed men robbed a Securitas truck on the E6 near Stora Höga.

Robbers roam highways

Gangs of road pirates pose an increased threat on Swedish highways, Swedish radio news channel SR reported. The highway robbers strike at night, attacking travelers who have parked their mobile homes by the road to sleep. Swedish police said 30 robberies had already been reported this summer, most of them in the southern and western parts of the country. In seven robberies, the pirates sprayed anesthetic gas into the mobile homes to ensure that its residents remained asleep while they stripped the cabin of valuables. Tourists are warned about the robbers when they cross the Øresund Bridge, aboard ferries, and in service areas. The Swedish police said they had contacted European intelligence agency Europol for further information about the road pirates. ‘We suspect they are criminal gangs from the former Yugoslavia,’ said Per-Arne Nilsson from the police in Mölndal, which is in charge of coordinating the Swedish effort against the robberies.

Sweden: Bus and Subway Protest Against Violence

All public transportation in Sweden is coming to a halt for 2 minutes at noon Friday. The stop is a protest against increased violence and threats against bus drivers, ticket-takers, and other personnel. It is a joint action by both employers and unions. Bus drivers have called for a change in the system so that they will no longer have to handle money, and for the installation of security cameras to identify trouble-makers.

4 Comments:

At November 07, 2005 7:28 PM, Blogger Chip said...

Fjordman, please keep up the news from Europe. You are uniquely qualified, both in research and language skills, to stay on top of this.

I'm trying to find more European blogs which are reporting on this to update the second post down on my blog - "European Jihad..."

Feel free to post them there. I'll move them up into the post proper.

Hell, post there any time. I'm beginning to feel like I'm blogging in a closet.

 
At November 08, 2005 10:10 AM, Blogger oskar said...

@ Heloise:

First of all, Sweden is hardly "falling apart". Fjordman likes say so, but I think he has his own reasons which I won't go into here (read my comments on his post "Is Sweden superior"). Together with Finland and Denmark, Sweden is currently the only country in the EU with a budget surplus. GDP growth has outpaced the EU average for the past decade (after a slump in the early 1990s due to a real estate bubble in the late 1980s).

Of course crime is a discussion topic in Sweden, as it is in almost any other country in the world.

Is crime worse here than in other European countries or the US?

I´'d probably say less prevalent, given that we have less drug abuse than in your average continental European country or the US. Violent crime levels are of course much lower than in the US (as they are everywhere in Europe).

However, professional criminals (the type who carry out armed robberies) seem to have been getting bolder and more violent lately and the police seem not to have the situation fully under control - does that sound familiar?

 
At November 08, 2005 11:40 AM, Blogger simulev said...

Sweden has other problems.

Plauge of assault gangrapes in Sweden

 
At November 08, 2005 1:32 PM, Blogger oskar said...

@ Simulev:
Yes, the "rape wave" is currently all over the evening press. Much of the 'increase' is due to a change in the legal definition of rape.

However, there does seem to be an increase from previous years. Although immigrants seem to account for about 85% of outdoor assault rapes the increase can hardly be blamed on them, since they've been here for quite some time.

I think it's probably due to a combination of trends, including increase alcohol consumption amongst young people (both girls and boys), a warm summer (rapes go down in the wintertime, for obvious reasons) AND a slowly but surely increasing number of antisocial young immigrants.

 

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