Truck with 11 tonnes of blood-plasma stolen en route to Austria

A truck carrying 11 tonnes of blood-plasma stolen in Berlin while en route to Austria has been found in Poland and safely returned to the country.Police said yesterday (Thurs) that the driver of a Lower Austrian freighter’s truck with Mödling license plates had picked up the load of plasma from the USA on 5 February in Bremerhaven, Germany, and started driving back to Austria.But after stopping for a rest in Berlin the driver said that when he returned to his truck it had gone.The freighter company informed the police, who launched a pan-european search for the truck.Austrian Federal Crime Office (BK) spokesman Helmut Greiner said yesterday evening they had received a call from Polish police, who said they were following a truck with Mödling plates.Polish police stopped the truck near Zielona on Monday and arrested the driver, who swore his boss had told him to drive it to Russia.The truck’s 992 cartons of deep-frozen plasma were found safe and sound and returned to pharmaceutical firm Baxter in Orth an der Donau, Lower Austria.