Long prison sentences after violent watch robbery in Aarhus

Two foreign men have each been sentenced by the Court to five and a half years’ imprisonment for an unusually aggravated robbery at a shop in Aarhus, where watches worth several million kroner were stolen. A third man was sentenced to one and a half years’ imprisonment for handling stolen goods after receiving the watches for resale.

The two men, aged 27 and 31 and from Montenegro, were behind the robbery. The third man is 37 years old and a Dutch national. All three were expelled from Denmark in connection with the judgment.

Threatened with a pistol

The robbery took place on 25 May 2025 at a shop in Rosensgade in central Aarhus. The two men posed as customers who wanted to look at watches. After being let into the shop, they pulled out a pistol and threatened the owner and an employee. They then forced them into a back room, where their hands and feet were secured with plastic ties.

The two men stole a total of 62 watches with an overall value of approximately 5.6 million kroner before fleeing the scene.

Arrested near the border

East Jutland Police quickly dispatched several patrols to the area after receiving the report, but it was not immediately possible to arrest the perpetrators. A comprehensive investigation was launched, and three days after the robbery the two men were arrested near the German border following cooperation with South and Southern Jutland Police, before they managed to leave the country.

The third man, who was in the process of receiving the stolen watches, was also arrested.

In court, the two men admitted the robbery but stated that the act was spontaneous and not planned. That explanation was rejected.

-“Based on their movements prior to the robbery and the way they acted afterwards, we were convinced that this was carefully planned. The reason this became a point of dispute in court is that, as a starting point, it results in a higher sentence if the robbery is organised. In addition to being planned, it was also an unusually brutal robbery, which has had a severe impact on the staff in the shop. These factors were included in the court’s assessment, and therefore it resulted in a significant prison sentence,” said Special Prosecutor Dorthe Lysgaard from the Prosecution Service at East Jutland Police.

Particularly aggravated nature

The two Montenegrin men were convicted of robbery of a particularly aggravated nature and of possession of a loaded firearm in a public place under particularly aggravating circumstances. The Dutch man was convicted of handling stolen goods of a particularly aggravated nature.

The two men convicted of robbery accepted the judgment, while the man convicted of handling stolen goods requested time to consider whether to appeal.

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