Bungling cops arrest each other

Berlin police officers arrested each other as robbers made off with the cash after holding up an off licence.

Two crooks threatened a female employee with a machete at the cash-and-carry selling booze in the city's Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf district.

When the woman opened the till and handed over £5,000, the shop's silent alarm went off.

Plain-clothes policemen arrived at the store minutes later but ended up being arrested when uniformed officers stormed in seconds afterwards.

The crooks escaped and police have issued an apology over the mix-up.

Manager of the off-licence Heinz Huber said: "We all thought the uniformed police had caught the crooks and when the plain-clothes cops tried to tell them who they were, the uniformed police told them to keep quiet.

"It was only when one of the uniformed officers recognised one of the plain-clothes cops that they realised what had happened.

"They knew they had made fools of themselves and the real thieves were long gone."

14:16 Friday 9th January 2009

Source