Bike thieves catch the wrong cab

OREBRO, Sweden, July 14 (UPI) -- A Swedish taxi driver said he had no problem when a young couple asked if he could accommodate their bike -- until he realized it was his own stolen bicycle.

Taxi driver Hassan Abdulnabi said he met with the 20-year-old woman in Orebro and agreed to construct a rack to carry a bicycle, but he was shocked when a 20-year-old man arrived and showed him a bike he immediately recognized as his own, The Local reported Tuesday.

Abdulnabi said he asked the man to undo a lock on the bike's front tire to prove ownership, but while the man claimed to have a key, he said he preferred to leave it locked for security reasons.

The driver said he phoned police after the couple got into his car, but no car showed up, so he drove the couple to the police station and locked them inside his car while he contacted officers.

"I made my own little jail for them for about three or four minutes," he said.

The man protested to officers that the bike belonged to him, but Abdulnabi quelled doubts by pulling a key from his own pocket and unlocking the front tire.

Abdulnabi said he is pressing charges against the couple and he is thankful that he was the one to answer the pair's call for a cab.

"If another cab driver had taken the job, the thieves would have certainly gotten away," he said.