Off-duty PCs catch suspected thief while on stag do

Sgt Eren Emin says being a police officer is his job, wherever he is

A man allegedly stealing from a restaurant in Barcelona was stopped in his tracks by a group of off-duty Met Police officers on a stag do.

Sgt Eren Emin, 30, said a man jumped over the restaurant counter and began grabbing electrical items.

He said along with his friends, who were also police officers, he chased the man before detaining him.

"I'm a police officer. It's my job. Wherever we are, whether in Spain, it doesn't matter, I have to do what's right," he added.

'Getting him stopped'

The sergeant, who is based in Enfield, north London, said the man caught their attention after he jumped over the counter to the restaurant's bar.

"He started to ransack the tills and take electrical goods such as the iPads and iPhones, whatever else was there, before he made his way around and then sprinted outside of the restaurant," he said.

"Instantly we stood up and gave chase.

"As soon as he saw me he started running and obviously I didn't have a chance to think, 'Oh, wait, I'm not a police officer, and I'm not in the UK, I'm in Spain'. I'm a nobody here, but to be honest, that didn't even cross my mind.

"It was a case of just getting him stopped."

The off-duty officers caught the man, recovered everything that was stolen and took him back to the restaurant

Sgt Emin said the off-duty officers chased the man about 50m (165ft) before they caught him.

They recovered everything that was stolen and took the man back to the restaurant where they waited until the local police arrived.

"As soon as they arrived, one of my colleagues informed them that we were all police officers and then it was high fives all around, is how I would describe it," he said.

He said the restaurant staff were "really shocked because they didn't expect the whole table of their customers to get up and get this chap and recover all their goods".

On whether he could ever switch off from his job, he said: "No, and it's the same for my other colleagues as well."