vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #612 / Crime watch / Reading article...

A Vladivostok resident, who was robbed of 4,500 rubles ($188) in the street by two Gypsies in what he claims to be a result of hypnosis, later came across them and reported them to the local police.

The man, whose name is not disclosed, turned to the police on Tuesday saying he had recently been stopped by two Gypsy women on Khabarovskaya Street in the residential district of Pervaya Rechka. According to the man, the two offered to tell him fortunes. He refused, but while talking to them was sent into a trance and after coming to his senses discovered that the two had taken money and documents from his pocket.

The robbed man managed to snatch the money back from the swindlers but was thumped on the head by two Gypsy men, who took the money and escaped with the women.

Several days later the man saw the women on the street and called the police. The thieves, aged 37 and 48, were detained by Frunzensky road patrol police and taken into custody.

A criminal case has been launched into the robbery, a statement from Primorye’s Inner Affairs Department said Wednesday. Police believe that the detained suspects and their accomplices might be involved in a number of similar crimes.