Police are searching for three men suspected of stealing around €3 million worth of goods from a shipping company on Rangoonweg at Schiphol. According to surveillance footage, the thieves arrived at the warehouse around 0330 on Wednesday, 5 June 2019 and used an electric pallet truck to steal approximately 40 pallets filled primarily with expensive electronics.
The stolen goods include Motorola brand phones and DJI brand items such as drones and action cams. Opsporing Verzocht reports that “possibly by accident,” the thieves also stole several boxes containing parts of garden lighting. Cooperating investigative services discovered 97 of these boxes on 12 September in the Midi-Center industrial estate warehouse in Beverwijk; the shed owner was arrested.
The Royal Netherlands Marechaussee – also known as the Koninklijke Marechaussee, the Netherlands Armed Forces branch responsible for airport and border security – suspects the perpetrators may have had inside knowledge of the warehouse because they seemed familiar with the layout of the space.
Police describe the two lorries used by the thieves as, “a light-colored DAF brand truck, type CF75 250,” and “a white tractor unit from the Renault brand, type Premium 370 19T, and a white trailer from the Draco brand.” Further, “The DAF drove during the theft with the stolen German license plate KLE-AQ-60. The Renault tractor had the stolen Belgian license plate 1-SET-340.”
The Renault unit was purchased by two men from a company on the Industrieweg in Vuren, Gelderland on 17 April 2019 and police have since arrested one of those men. The second man is still at large. He is described as a bald white man called “Appie” who is “approximately 1.70 meters long, is estimated to be between 30 and 35 years old and spoke with an Amsterdam accent.”
Police are seeking anyone with information about the vehicles, the men in the surveillance video, or the stolen electronics. Additionally, two of the suspects arrived in Vuren by taxi that Wednesday afternoon and the Marechaussee would like to find the taxi driver as they “may be an important witness.”
