Novi Sad Robbery: Suspects Arrested in Audi Nearby
A fast food restaurant on Rumenacka Street in Novi Sad was robbed in the early morning hours, and police found the suspects in an Audi on Pasterova Street, just a few dozen meters away.
A fast food restaurant called Kuca Kobasica on Rumenacka Street in Novi Sad was robbed in the early morning hours of August 8. Police soon after found an Audi on Pasterova Street and detained at least two people. Pasterova is just a few dozen meters from the robbed restaurant.
Rumenacka Street runs through Detelinara, one of the most densely populated parts of Novi Sad. The distance between the crime scene and the arrest site is measured in steps, not kilometers, an indication that the suspects had not managed to leave the immediate area before the patrol reached them.
The scene was processed at two locations
Police carried out the on-site investigation both in front of the restaurant and on Pasterova Street, collecting evidence at both spots. Splitting the scene this way is standard procedure when one location is where the crime happened and another is where the arrest took place, since evidence tied to the break-in itself and evidence found inside the vehicle are handled separately.
At the time of publication, the following was not yet known:
- exactly what was taken from the restaurant
- the amount of material damage
- whether force or a threat was used to take the items
None of those three details is a minor point. The first determines the size of the loss, the second feeds into the victim’s property claim, and the third decides how the offense will even be classified in the police report.
What separates theft from robbery under the law?
The word robbery, as used in headlines, is a journalistic term, not a legal one. Serbia’s Criminal Code separates theft, aggravated theft and robbery, and the difference between them is not stylistic, it is measured in years behind bars.
Robbery under Article 206 applies when someone else’s movable property is taken through the use of force or the threat of an immediate attack on life or body. That offense carries a prison sentence of two to ten years. A break-in at a closed location with no one present is, as a rule, classified as aggravated theft, which carries a considerably lighter maximum sentence.
The final legal classification is not made by police but by the prosecutor’s office once it receives the criminal complaint. Until that happens, any figure quoted for a potential sentence in this case is premature.
What happens next in the pre-trial process
After being taken into custody, the detainees can be held for a maximum of 48 hours. Within that window they are brought before the competent public prosecutor along with the criminal complaint, and the prosecutor decides whether to request pre-trial detention. A preliminary proceedings judge then rules on the detention itself, and at that stage of the process it can last up to 30 days.
Until a final verdict, those detained are treated as suspects. Neither their full names nor their photographs are published, since the presumption of innocence applies. The same goes for the number of people involved, currently reported as at least two, without official confirmation.
The first word came from social media, not from a statement
The first information about the arrest was published on the Instagram account 192. Media outlets picked it up around 12:16 PM, several hours after the incident itself. No official statement from the relevant authorities had been issued by that point.
That order of events is not trivial. Until a statement arrives, the exact number of people detained, their ages, the origin of the vehicle and the legal classification of the offense remain at the level of initial reports. That is why, at this stage, only what can be verified is reported: the address of the robbed restaurant, the time, the make of the car that was stopped and the street where the arrest took place.
What happens next in the case hinges on what is not yet known. Without an official statement there is no information on what was taken or on how the offense will be classified, and those two details are exactly what will determine whether the case proceeds as aggravated theft or as robbery.
