Prosecutors Seek Detention in Belgrade Five-Car Case
Suspect R. P., 21, is accused of using five strangers' cars in Belgrade's Novi Beograd between July 20 and August 3, and of taking a bag with cash and documents from one of them.
The Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade has requested detention for a young man suspected of using strangers’ cars around Novi Beograd for two weeks. The motion was filed with the Third Basic Court in Belgrade immediately after his questioning. The suspect is R. P., born in 2005.
He is charged with two criminal offenses. The first is unauthorized use of another’s motor vehicle under Article 213 of the Criminal Code, the second is theft under Article 203. According to the prosecution, he used the vehicles between July 20 and August 3, 2026, within the Novi Beograd municipality, without the owners’ consent. Five people were affected.
A Key Left in the Ignition, the Common Thread
The indictment describes no break-ins and no forced entry. In all five cases, the prosecution lists the same method: the suspect got into unlocked cars, found the keys in the ignition, started the engine and drove off.
In other words, in every one of the five cases the car was unlocked with the key inside. Five victims, one after another, over fourteen days, in a single municipality.
A Bag With Cash and Documents
The second offense is tied to August 3. That day, according to the prosecution, he took a bag from one of the vehicles he was using without authorization and left the scene with it. The bag contained:
- cash
- a mobile phone
- the owner’s personal documents
Because of this, theft was added to the charge of unauthorized driving.
The arrest followed less than a week later. Officers from the UKP, the Department for Suppression of Property Crime, detained him for up to 48 hours, acting on the public prosecutor’s order. The suspect was brought before the Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade on August 9 and questioned for the record.
Why Are Prosecutors Seeking Detention?
The public prosecutor justified the motion for detention by citing “particular circumstances indicating that he would repeat the offense within a short period of time.” The grounds, then, are the risk of repetition, not the severity of any single act.
The Third Basic Court in Belgrade is now deciding on the motion. Until a final verdict, the suspect is presumed innocent.
At this stage, the prosecution has not said where the vehicles were found, whether they were damaged, or whether the bag was returned to its owner. Nor does it say whether the suspect has prior convictions. That information typically comes only once the court rules on the detention request.
Timeline of the case, according to the prosecution:
- July 20, the first unauthorized use of another’s vehicle in the series
- August 3, the last of the drives and the theft of the bag
- August 9, questioning before the prosecutor and the motion for detention
The Same Pattern Outside Belgrade Too
The case is not isolated. Earlier this month we reported on an arrest in Ruma, where M. U., 30, is charged with aggravated theft in a continuing series, and there too the targets were cars with the key left inside. The difference lies in the classification: in the Belgrade case prosecutors are working from Article 213, meaning use of a vehicle without intent to keep it, while the Ruma case is classified as aggravated theft.
What the cases share is something else. In none of them was a vehicle broken into. The key was inside, and that is the one part of the story an owner can still control before it ever reaches a prosecutor’s desk.
