In a special operation, the Bulgarian police have arrested a crime gang, dealing with house thefts, the Interior Ministry has announced.

The gang has been active on the territory of the Bulgarian cities of Sofia, Plovdiv, Pazardzhik and Pernik. The criminals had a file for apartments they have been watching.

During the operation, the police stumbled on the trails of three burglars and started watching them. The men entered into four apartments in the Sofia districts “Krasna polyana” and “Krasno selo” and exited carrying gold jewelry, audio and video equipment, laptops and other valuables.

Shortly after 2:30 am the robbers entered another apartment but ran away quickly after the owner came back unexpectedly. However, the three men continued to the next apartment, where they failed to open the apartment’s lock.

About 4 am, minutes after conducting their fifth successful hit for the night, the thieves have been attacked by the police. As soon as they saw the officers, they went into the BMW that has been waiting for them and ran away.

After a 30-minute chase, the police finally managed to arrest the burglars around 4:30 am.

All stolen valuables from the night have been found in the search of the car. It was established that the gang has also used another car as storage for all the devices they used for penetrating the homes – links with keys, passkeys, devices for suppression of alarm systems, etc.

In one of the thieves, the police found a list and descriptions of all the homes that the criminals have been watching.

The gang existed in this lineup for four months. Besides stealing from homes, the three men have also been selling the valuables.

The arrested have been known to the police because of their large criminal records.

After being examined, all the stolen valuables will be returned to their owners.