Novi Sad: Nine Gold Necklace Thefts, Officer Injured
Novi Sad police solved nine aggravated thefts of gold necklaces. The suspect, S. R., 19, is also accused of assaulting an officer and was sent to a facility in Krusevac.
The Novi Sad police have cleared nine aggravated thefts of gold necklaces and arrested S. R., 19, from the area around the city, the Interior Ministry (MUP) announced on August 6. The suspect also faces a charge of assaulting an official in the line of duty. The case was handled together with the Novi Sad Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Investigators suspect that over the past month S. R. approached women in Novi Sad from behind and tore gold necklaces from their necks. The attacks took place on the street and in building entrances across the city, and police attribute all of the reported cases to the same person.
What the suspect is accused of
The Interior Ministry’s statement describes three separate parts of the case:
- nine aggravated thefts committed in Novi Sad over the past month
- assault on an official in the line of duty, committed during the arrest
- a previously imposed sentence the suspect is already serving
Nine offenses in a month works out, by the police’s own account, to roughly one reported theft every three days. The location keeps repeating in the description: a street or a building entrance, the kind of place where a victim is usually alone.
The statement does not say how much gold was taken in total, nor whether any of it has been returned to the victims. It also does not say whether any of the women were injured while their necklaces were being torn off. That detail typically surfaces later, alongside the criminal complaint, since it determines whether prosecutors keep the aggravated theft classification or change it.
How the police officer was injured
During the arrest, as the suspect tried to flee, he kicked a police officer and caused him grievous bodily harm, the Interior Ministry’s statement says. That is why, in addition to the nine thefts, he is also charged with assaulting an official.
Grievous bodily harm is a legal classification under the Criminal Code, not a description of the officer’s condition. The statement gives no information on how the injured officer is doing.
Why was the suspect sent to Krusevac?
After the arrest, S. R. was sent to the Juvenile Correctional Facility in Krusevac to serve a previously imposed sentence. It is the only institution of its kind in Serbia, used to carry out sanctions handed down to younger offenders.
That detail also points to an earlier chapter of the story. This was not the suspect’s first contact with the justice system: the arrest came while he already had a sentence to serve. He was born in 2007, meaning he could have been a minor when that sentence was handed down, which explains why he was sent specifically to Krusevac rather than to a prison for adult convicts.
What was known earlier
We previously reported when police first announced the arrest of a young man who had been snatching gold necklaces in Novi Sad. At that point only the arrest itself was known.
The new statement filled in what had been missing: the number of offenses, the injury to the police officer, and the transfer to Krusevac. The Novi Sad Police Department’s usual practice is to announce an arrest first, then release the number of linked reports once the operational work is done.
Criminal complaints against the suspect will be filed with the competent public prosecutor’s office through the regular procedure. Until a final court ruling, S. R. is presumed innocent, and everything stated above reflects only the grounds for suspicion presented by the police.
