vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #529 / Crime watch / Reading article...

A private detective, former head of the Ussurisk’s regional department for combating organized crime, faces charges with a car theft and an attempted back-sale to owner, prosecutors said.

The investigation revealed that Grigory Pravda, a retired police colonel now working as a private detective, colluded with Vyacheslav Tsarukhayev who stole a Toyota Raum from a woman.

After the theft, Pravda, acting in his role as a private detective, contacted the woman and offered to bring the car back for half price, a press statement from the regional prosecutor’s office said July 29. The demanded sum of $3,000 should be given to the thieves or else the car would be burned, Pravda told the woman.

On July 19, the woman’s partner brought the sum to the detective’s office and soon the woman received a call informing her about the car’s whereabouts. The same day, Pravda and Tsarukhayev were detained on suspicion of the crime, and on July 21 the two were arrested by Ussurisk’s court officials.

A preliminary investigation is being performed by Ussurisk’s Prosecutor’s Office, the statement said.