Bjørnar Moxnes, head of the Norwegian Communist party, has been caught on camera stealing Hugo Boss sunglasses at an airport shop, prompting the shamed politician to take sick leave.
A security video showed Moxnes trying on sunglasses in the shop and asking his girlfriend’s opinion. But, he is then seen simply putting a pair of Hugo Boss shades in his luggage and walking out of the store without paying for them.
The sunglasses he took retailed at 1,199 Norwegian Krone, or just over €100. The police were given the security video and some pictures, together with the store’s notification of the theft. Moxnes accepted the charge and was subsequently fined 3,000 Krone, or almost €260.
After the security video was leaked and went viral on social media, he was forced to confess his crime to the public in a press conference and he apologised several times for his actions. He claimed he was doing so to spare his party reputational damage.
Moxnes had initially claimed taking the sunglasses was a simple mistake. However, he later admitted he had also removed the labels and then put them in his luggage. “It was a big error,” he said. To compound his embarrassment, his colleagues were not told the whole story until it hit the media, with several outlets running the tale.
“I am sorry I did not go back right away and didn’t go into details about the process right from the beginning,” he said.
As the party leader was expressing his remorse in front of the TV news cameras, a car drove by and a passenger rolled down the window and yelled mockingly: “Where are my sunglasses?”
Moxnes admitted he’d lied about taking the sunglasses, first when a security guard asked about them and later to his party colleagues, because he was in shock. “I panicked, I was stunned. It was the most embarrassing moment in my life”, he told the press.
Now, the disgraced politician has taken two weeks of sick leave. However, he did say he plans to continue as party leader.
In response to the scandal, the Communist party held an extraordinary national executive meeting on July 3 and, somewhat surprisingly to some, expressed full confidence in Moxnes, acting party leader Marie Sneve Martinussen announced after the gathering.
