SEVILLE • How many oranges can you fit into two cars and a van?
More than 4,000kg of the fruit apparently, after a bunch of thieves in southern Spain attempted to do just that on Friday last week.
The €1,400 (S$2,300) fruit heist was busted by police in Seville, after crew from a cargo ship docked at a port outside the city reported a mysterious disappearance of the fruit.
As a convoy of vehicles - a Suzuki sedan, a small estate car and a van - was attempting to flee with the citrusy loot, it came across a police car on routine patrol and abruptly changed direction, according to local media reports.
This aroused the suspicion of the officers, who gave chase, stopped the vehicles and caught the thieves red-handed.
Five people were arrested, comprising a couple, their adult son and two brothers, and will be charged in court for theft.
According to the Evening Standard, the suspects tried to convince the police that they chanced upon the oranges "on the ground" along the way and had picked them up for their own consumption.
Stealing oranges is not uncommon in Spain, especially when there is a spike in the price of oranges and orange juice, with police known to send in the cavalry and Civil Guards to help run down the thieves.
Stealing oranges is not uncommon in Spain, especially when there is a spike in the price of oranges and orange juice, with police known to send in the cavalry and Civil Guards to help run down the thieves.
Sometimes, thefts could turn fatal. In 2013, a Bulgarian farmhand hired by a farmer to guard his crop was shot and killed by robbers.
Spain has for most of the last decade suffered economic carnage that has assailed the 19 nations sharing the common European currency.
