Yesterday at 6:49 PM • Edited yesterday at 10:55 PM
Pepper spray is increasingly being used at festivals by pickpockets. As soon as the substance is injected into the public, people experience problems with their eyes and respiratory tract. In the chaos that follows, the thieves escape with phones, wallets or jewelry. It was also a hit at Harmony of Hardcore in Erp on Saturday. Pickpockets tried to take their chances at two stages.
The police say that there have been three incidents, two of which were attempted thefts and one theft that actually succeeded. “A corrosive substance is said to have been used. But it is not clear whether it was deodorant, pepper spray or tear gas,” a spokesperson said. No one has been arrested.
A special security company, Scoped, has been deployed at several major festivals in the Netherlands, including Harmony of Hardcore, for a number of years. They send specialized security guards in plain clothes onto the site and identify suspicious matters. If they see something suspicious, they tip off a regular security guard to conduct an additional search. For example in shoes. But checking is difficult. Because pepper spray is sometimes also smuggled in the form of, for example, a lighter or lipstick.
“With pepper spray, it is often a theft that is discovered.”
According to Kevin Chan of Scoped, the pepper spray trend emerged just after the corona period. “Since then, we have seen this regularly used by pickpockets at all events. Gangs come here to steal phones or chains at festivals.” According to Kevin, they often only spray when they are caught. “To cause chaos so they can get away.”
That was also the case with Harmony of Hardcore. “We mapped out the group and had it checked by security. There we heard that a chain had been stolen, Kevin says. “They were Italians. They had no logical story as to why they were at the event, but they also had nothing criminal with them. We were therefore unable to hand them over to the police, but we did remove them from the site. The chain was gone, but fortunately we managed to prevent worse.”
“If he had stolen something, he would have passed it on quickly.”
It happened to Nigel van der Linden (31) twice on Saturday at Harmony of Hardcore. In the afternoon he saw the first incident happen at the main stage. Later that evening it happened again at another stage where he was standing. He went after one of the perpetrators.
“A bear of a guy waltzed through with someone under his arm. I saw who he was holding, but it burned our eyes and I felt short of breath, so we walked away for a while,” says Nigel. “When we came back, I saw that guy crouching down trying to get back into the audience. I said to my friends: that’s that bastard who just sprayed tear gas!”
Nigel ran after the man and grabbed him in a necklock. “He shouted for help in broken English.” That made people think that Nigel had gotten into a fight with the man, so he was pushed away first. “I shouted for someone to get security and was then joined by three others.”
When no one from security eventually showed up, Nigel decided to let the man go. “I felt in his pockets, but there was nothing in there. If he had stolen something, he must have passed it on quickly,” says Nigel. He finds it an unpleasant incident on an otherwise ‘fantastic sun-drenched day’. “We still have a small one trappie after given. I hope he hasn’t been able to ruin anyone’s day again.”
