Little people concealed in hockey bags fleece Swedish bus passengers

Adrian says: According to the Swedish daily newspaper Expressen.se, police suspect that a team of thieves operating in Sweden are using little people hidden in hockey bags and placed in the cargo holds of buses to loot passengers luggage while in transit.

Passengers noticed the oversized hockey bags being quickly carried off to the trunk of a waiting car when they reaced their destination. Their valuables, however, were nowhere to be found in their luggage. Police launched the theory that it would be possible for a small person to hide in the luggage compartment (ala Shanghai "trunk man") and have now issued a public warning. Link (Swedish)

[#1 posted by Antinous , January 21, 2008 12:36 PM]

If the little people are stooges for the mob, that's awful, but if the little people are actually running it, that would be kinda cool.

[#2 posted by Takuan , January 21, 2008 12:49 PM]

what's wrong with child labour?

[#3 posted by Moon , January 21, 2008 12:58 PM]

This smacks of desperation by the gangsters. How much loot could PEOPLE WHO RIDE IN BUSES have?

[#4 posted by Antinous , January 21, 2008 1:04 PM]

Tak-kun,

I have so many unusable punch lines for that...

Why not hook the electric bumper device to the cargo hold!

[#5 posted by noen , January 21, 2008 1:05 PM]

Bad Santa!

[#6 posted by mechfish , January 21, 2008 1:13 PM]

This was a great Mission Impossible episode back in the 1960s. Except that the tiny guy in the suitcase was a master safecracker, and the bus was a vault at some expensive Swiss hotel for spies, or something.

[#7 posted by Santa's Knee , January 21, 2008 1:21 PM]

Gol-darned Jockeys!!!

[#8 posted by Squashy , January 21, 2008 5:15 PM]

Round up the usual suspects (there can't be too many).

[#9 posted by arp , January 21, 2008 6:15 PM]

I blame the space roaches.

[#10 posted by Van Diemen , January 21, 2008 8:00 PM]

Spelling mistake "reaced their destination"

[#11 posted by HOTDAMN , January 21, 2008 9:40 PM]

thats such a good idea.

[#12 posted by Defiant1 , January 21, 2008 9:48 PM]

TRUNK MONKEYS!

[#13 posted by Halloween Jack , January 22, 2008 7:23 AM]

Let's just let Snopes look into this, mmmkay?

[#14 posted by Dmitri , January 22, 2008 9:26 AM]

#6: MECHFISH - That was the first episode, and the guy wasn't a little people, they just had a very big suitcase and he was very skinny... heh

As for the article, words like "random searches" were popping up, which is never a good sign. A follow up article says that they are planning to put cameras in the cargo hold to catch them in the act, and will be checking "suspicious bags". Of course, I doubt that the thieves will try again considering the media attention.

It's a shame that more and more security is needed. Next they'll be x-raying your bags before you're allowed to board.

I think Greyhound's (at least in Canada) solution is best. Let the driver (or station staff) "load" the bags. That way, any unwelcome guests will be unable to muffle their yelps when the bag they are in is hurled in and out of the hold ;-)

[#15 posted by Takuan , January 22, 2008 9:33 AM]

just flood the cargo holds with nitrogen

[#16 posted by angusm , January 22, 2008 9:53 AM]

Oh man ... what if there were _two_ little people loaded by different gangs on the same bus? And they both got out of their cases and started fighting in the hold, while the bus is on the freeway?

But the police have planted a third little person in another bag, and at the height of the fight, he breaks out and tries to arrest them. But he's in plainclothes, so the little FBI agent in the fourth bag doesn't believe he's a cop. And ...

Tell me you wouldn't pay to see this movie.

[#17 posted by markbellis , January 22, 2008 10:36 AM]

Remember the scene in Buster Keaton's The General where the girl is smuggled into a train's baggage compartment in a duffel bag, then a huge trunk is dropped on her?