The case of the burgled paintshop

At midnight on 5 April 2007, car painter Petr Melichárek from Štěchovice near Prague awoke to the sound of his doorbell ringing. At the door was his employee, who said that someone had burgled the paintshop. Mr Melichárek took a quick look around and ascertained that a new grinder and a spray gun were missing, the damage topping CZK 20,000. A number of traces and clues tipped the owner off as to who the burglar was. He walked to a nearby police station with a request for help. The case looked easy with the solution at hand. But the „clash“ with the Czech police took an unexpected turn.

Call 158

Let's return to midnight in the small town of Štěchovice first. Petr Melichárek soon discovered that his two Slovak workers were the thieves, and he guessed – correctly – that they were making a hasty escape by car, first to the motorway and then to Slovakia. He ran to the local police department with this information. „They told me: ‚Go to the workshop, we'll come after you and write a report‘,“ says Melichárek. „‚Why to the workshop?‘ I wondered. ‚The thieves are heading for Slovakia and we must catch them.‘ So I proposed they could stop the thieves in Jesenice, which the thieves had to pass through to get to the motorway. But the cop told me that he can't do anything without writing the report first.“

So Petr Melichárek got into…