In broad daylight on Monday, a group of minors broke into a store in Sofia and stole expensive handbags. The saleswoman tried to stop them, but she failed and was pushed away. The owner of the store, Valya Veselinova, who is also a representative of the Bulgarian Retail Association, claims that about a month ago, a group of youths stole handbags in a similar way in another of her stores in a metropolitan mall. When they were caught, they told the police that they were doing it on the orders of another, older man. She suspects that this is a scheme in which children are used because they expect that they will not be held responsible for what they have done.
In “Hello, Bulgaria” Veselinova said that the young men entered the Vitoshka store as customers, without hiding their faces. Initially there were two of them, and later a third person joined them. The situation was similar in other of her robbed stores.
“The two young men who distracted the saleswoman, it is evident from the recordings of all the cameras in our stores, that they are not at all worried about their faces being seen. These are underage boys wearing expensive clothes. They are not worried because they know that they are underage and are not subject to criminal liability”, she emphasized.
Veselinova filed a report with the police. They explained that they could do nothing, since the people who committed the robberies were minors. The law enforcement agencies stated that even if they were caught – The youths are minors and the only thing that can be done is to take them to the Children's Pedagogical Room, where “nothing is done”. She emphasized that these are groups of so-called “locals” who also started robbing stores.
"In one of the cases of theft in our store, the police recognized the perpetrators. They said that they were part of an organized group, headed by an older man who organized the robberies on behalf of customers,” said Veselinova.
And she added that when asked what the value of the stolen goods must be in order for the police to pay attention, it turned out that the material damage must be at least one minimum wage. "Our damage - in the case of "Vitoshka", is the theft of three bags worth over 2,000 leva," explained Veselinova.