The District Court of West Iceland yesterday sentenced a thieving father and son duo to three months of probation for a recent series of thefts and break-ins.
The two men were apprehended at Höfn í Hornafirði, East Iceland, on August 11, and the case has been under investigation since. In the meantime the men were remanded in custody.
In total they were charged with five counts of theft, including one at the store Húnabúð in Blönduós, a small village in West Iceland.
“When the weather is this good I put a clothes-rack out on the deck in front of the store. A foreign man came up to me and asked for help with selecting a sweater for himself, which of course I assisted him with. He was having a hard time making up his mind and talked to me for a long time,” Sigurlaug Gísladóttir, owner and operator of Húnabúð, told Vísir earlier this month.
In the meantime the man’s associate snuck into the store, emptied out the cash register and stole the owner’s purse. In total around ISK 70,000 (USD 545; EUR 480) was taken, as well as all of Sigurlaug’s debit and credit cards, drivers license and personal items.
“This is probably not the first time the do this and it’s very frustrating not to have realized what was happening until afterwards. You’re so used to being able to trust people here,” said Sigurlaug.
Similar scenarios played out in Skagfirðingabúð, a store in Sauðárkrókur where the men stole two Samsung S5 smartphones, the store Flóra in Akureyri, and supermarket Samkaup Strax in Eskifjörður. Additionally the men broke into a summer house in West Iceland on August 7, where they took a laptop and an iPad.
Both men are citizens of the Czech Republic—the father is in his mid 40s and the son in his early 20s. Neither of them have ever been residents of Iceland nor have any particular connection to the country.
According to the elder man’s lawyer, Auðunn Helgason, the two confessed to all charges and will not appeal the ruling, nor will they be making any public statement.
