The police in Trondheim, Norway, received a rather bizarre phone call from an “old friend” this weekend. A 17-year-old car thief, who already built a reputation with the authorities, called the local police station to report that he was stuck in a car he was trying to steal.

The teenager had managed to break into a Volvo, parked on the site of a car salesman. However, when he got on and closed the door, he was locked up by the central locking system.

“At 8 o’clock, he called us from the car he had just started breaking in,” Ebbe Kimo, operations manager at the police, told Norway’s national broadcaster. “He knows us pretty well and clearly thought it would be okay to call us for help. A bit like calling a friend.”

Relieved

The police arrived shortly thereafter and could quickly free the 17-year-old thief. “He sounded very stressed and desperate when he called us, and I think he was relieved when we arrived,” said Kimo. On the desk the boy stated that he simply wanted to make a ride in the car. He was allowed later in the day. It is not clear whether he has a penalty over his head. The “not so snappy car thief” has been known to the police for minor crimes and car thefts. But this is the first time that he himself had to call the police. “In his previous attempts he could at least get out of the car,” Kimo says to a local newspaper.