Equipment worth an estimated $150,000 was stolen from a store in Uppsala
Swedish police suspect Russian involvement in the large-scale theft of ice hockey equipment from a store in Uppsala earlier this month, according to national media.
About SEK 1.6 million ($150,000) worth of hockey equipment was stolen from the Sportringen store between November 5 and 6, including what owner Mats Loov described as “The best [equipment] we have.”
“It feels terrible. They’ve picked the best sticks and then they’ve moved on. There are piles of top skates gone. We only have a couple left.” Loov said, according The Express.
The Swedish news media reported that the police suspect that the theft was a “ordered job from Russia” as some top brands have stopped deliveries to the country because of the conflict in Ukraine.
The theft is said to include 100 pairs of skates and about 400 sticks from Bauer and fellow Canadian brand CCM.
“It feels terrible if we are a pantry for them. Considering the lack of hockey products they have, they can probably pay well for what we have lost.” Loov added.
Local police press spokesman Jonas Eronen added: “The suppliers have gone out to their dealers and explained that such thefts may happen in the near future. There is nothing confirmed, but there is information in the preliminary investigation about this.”
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) has been among the organizations to ban Russian and Belarusian teams from all its competitions as a result of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine.
However, the Russians continue to play in the North American NHL, which has shown no signs of sanctioning individual players.
Source: sn.dk