In August last year, Erik Asp from Leksand received a call from his ex-wife who told him that she had filed a police report about the theft, which had occurred overnight.
Erik Asp discovered that he had previously placed a GPS transmitter under the seat cushion of the quad bike. Thanks to this, he was able to follow the quad bike's journey in real time and see that it had been smuggled to Poland. He called the Swedish police, but was told to wait.
Then I thought, whatever. I'll take care of it myself.
Contact with Polish police
He followed the ATV's path via an app on his phone and realized that the thieves had loaded it onto a truck traveling south on a highway in Poland. Through a contact, he got in touch with Polish police, who gave chase.
Erik Asp continuously shared the GPS coordinates of the quad bike and late in the evening he received a call from a Polish police officer. A Polish officer told him they had just raided a barn that was full of other stolen goods.
Three days later, Swedish police contacted him and wanted to see his GPS information.
Then I felt it was a bit late in the game. It became a bigger mess than I had expected.
The investigation that the Swedish police then initiated showed that several of the motorcycles found in Poland could be linked to individuals in Sweden.
Worth millions of kronor
In total, there are around 70 thefts in various locations in Central Sweden and the stolen vehicles are worth around five million kronor.
On Wednesday, ten people were convicted of, among other things, aggravated theft and aggravated receiving of stolen goods. Most were sentenced to prison terms of between 2 and 2.5 years.
Erik Asp's son has received his motocross bike back today, but the other motorcycle is still in Poland waiting to be transported back to Sweden. The insurance company has paid compensation for the quad bike.
And Erik, despite the initial message from the Swedish police, feels no bitterness towards them.
They have done an impressive job.
The indictment covered a total of 41 theft cases in the following 27 municipalities:
Avesta, Lindesberg, Östhammar, Östersund, Norrtälje, Upplands Väsby, Knivsta, Sigtuna, Torsby, Smedjebacken, Håbo, Motala, Linköping, Falu, Gävle, Karlskoga, Säter, Vansbro, Mjölby, Leksand, Vingåker, Mora, Hällefors, Finspång, Kinda, Katrineholm, Haninge.
