Car burglars strike again
High-priced BMW, mercedes VW and occasionally skoda vehicles are in vogue among thieves. This is not only according to anne hofer, press spokeswoman at the police headquarters in upper franconia, but was also confirmed over the weekend in the town of kulmbach. There, so far unknown perpetrators stole a mercedes GLE AMG worth 100,000 euros and set it on fire early on saturday in a wooded area between leuchau and lindau – presumably because they couldn't get any further with it. In addition, a BMW 3 series with kulmbach license plates worth around 45,000 euros disappeared.
Crime scenes: koditz and hollfeld
But that's not all – on monday morning, car thieves struck again in the region – in kodnitz near hof and in hollfeld, apparently with a penchant for products from the bavarian engine works. Police officers in bautzen, saxony, stopped a black BMW 1 series stolen a few hours earlier in kodnitz. At this time, the owner was still completely unaware of the situation. She only became aware of the theft when the police in bautzen informed her that her car had been stopped there during an inspection. The driver had been towed at the checkpoint. The eight-and-a-half-year-old car has a current value of about 10,000 euros.
Another 1 series BMW
Unknown perpetrators also targeted an eight-year-old brown 1-series BMW in hollfeld on monday night. The roughly equivalent vehicle with the license plates "BT-UU 8888" stand in the kulmbacher strabe. The theft was committed in the time between sunday, 21.30 o'clock, and monday, 6.45 o'clock, verubt. After the owner had noticed the loss of the BMW, he understood the police bayreuth-land, whose officers could no longer find the vehicle despite an immediately initiated manhunt.
Investigators of the bayreuth police took over the case and are now looking for witnesses. Anyone who noticed suspicious persons or saw the car in the kulmbacher strabe in hollfeld at the time in question is asked to call 0921/5060.
Whether these thefts are connected with the two cases in kulmbach is being investigated, according to police spokeswoman anne hofer. However, it is not yet possible to make a concrete statement on this at the present time.
It was a different story with the spectacular theft of the 100,000 euro AMG mercedes and the three-man BMW on saturday in leuchau and forstlahm. "Here we assume a connection due to new realizations, that can be said now", according to hofer, the question of a "heiben track" yesterday but still wanted to leave open.
Search for clues in the ashes
This is not least because the investigation is still ongoing. So the mercedes was towed away and seized, as was the fire debris from the forest stucco between leuchau and lindau. "The search for traces was allowed to take some time", said the police spokeswoman.
When asked about the possible origin of the perpetrators, hofer made no secret of the fact that most car thefts are committed by criminals from eastern and southeastern europe, some of whom "work in a very conspiratorial manner" and are organized in gangs that steal selected vehicles on order. The escape routes could not be generalized, of course fast roads and highways were preferred, but often everything was done to cover tracks with stops and detours. Hofer: "it is not surprising that the BMW stolen in koditz was stopped in bautzen." From there it is only 50 kilometers to the polish border.
The police also had to deal with the theft of two company vehicles between friday and saturday. In marktschorgast, a previously unknown perpetrator smashed the side window of a renault assembly bus on the premises of the BSA company in bernecker strabe and stole various tools worth around 5,000 euros. And in bayreuth, crooks tampered with two ford transits on the land of an electrical installation company in dieselstrabe. They smashed the rear windows of the vehicles and caused property damage of around 700 euros to the vehicle. The perpetrators then managed to escape unnoticed with drilling and milling machines worth several thousand euros.