Swimwear Arrest: Swedish Cop Takes Down Pickpocket While Wearing A Bikini [Viral Image]

A Swedish pickpocket had no idea what was coming on Wednesday as he tried to rob a couple of off-duty cops relaxing and sunbathing in a park. It’s not every day that a criminal gets held down by a couple of ladies in bikinis, but this guy sure did.

Mikaela Kellner and her friends were enjoying the sun in their swimwear in the Rålambshov Park in Stockholm when they were approached by what turned out to be a pickpocket pretending to sell newspapers to allegedly support homeless people.

Kellner and her friends declined to buy a newspaper, but the man wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept lingering around them.

A Swedish female police officer took down a would-be pickpocket while she was sunbathing. https://t.co/JllmeJJO3h

— Total Frat Move (@totalfratmove) July 29, 2016

After he finally left, Kellner had a feeling something was wrong.

During an interview with the Local, who theorize that the Swedish cop probably made the “arrest of the year,” she said “I told my friends to keep an eye on their things. But as soon as he left, one of my friends said, ‘where did my mobile phone go?'”

What the wily pickpocket had done was cover the mobile phone with his newspapers and then picked it up without anyone noticing as he left the scene. This was an action he would soon live to regret as Kellner soon took off after him. She chased him for around 50 feet before tackling him and pinning him to the ground.

“There was no time, so I ran after him, maybe 15 meters or so. One of my friends is also a police officer, so we got hold of him. He tried to get away so we held onto him harder,” she said.

Kellner and her friends then called their colleagues who were on duty, and they soon arrived to arrest the pickpocket.

Kellner has reportedly been a police officer for 11 years, but she says this is definitely the first time she has captured a suspect while wearing a bikini. After she posted the image on Instagram, it quickly went viral after the Swedish language newspaper Aftonbladet wrote about the story. The image has 17.2K likes at the time of writing.

However, Kellner says she just acted on instinct and didn’t really think much about it until after they had pinned the pickpocket down. She then realized just how funny she and her colleague looked.

“When I sat there I looked over at our other two friends who are not police officers and realized that it probably looked pretty funny. But I would have stepped in, no matter my outfit,” she said.

Aou,das geht an die Ehre,aber wie

Did this Swedish cop just make the arrest of the year? https://t.co/I8YkXOBrhd pic.twitter.com/yW8WuCcVc5

— Schwarzbunt (@verhuellt) July 28, 2016

Kellner went on to say she has received a lot of positive comments from both her friends and colleagues. She said this kind of thing happens all the time and our valuables are taken without us noticing them are gone – until later.

Kellner added that she mainly wanted to raise awareness to how cunning these people are, “almost like magicians.”

On the Instagram image, the description translates to read, “A poor homeless guy that you might think is trying to do the right thing. He sells newspapers rather than begging. When we decline to buy his newspapers he manages to steal my cell phone!! Very clever of him that he puts down his newspapers over the phone and could then pick it up with ease!!”

“A pity for this guy who happened to steal from two police officers. This is my first intervention while wearing a bikini in my 11 years as a police officer!! Pretty fun and pleasant, I must say. Beware of pickpockets, keep track of your valuables!!”

As for the pickpocket, he probably won’t be homeless for a while.

[Photo via Flickr by Tommie Hansen, cropped and resized/CC BY 2.0]