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Bungling Bosnian bank bandits bagged

Five Bosnian suspects are now in custody after a failed attempt to rob a bank on Tuesday in Allhaming, near Linz.

Published: 12 June 2014 15:58 CEST

Bungling Bosnian bank bandits bagged

Photo: laumat.at / Matthias Lauber

Police were alerted when a group of armed masked men were seen trying to break in to a bank earlier this week. The 51-year-old bank employee who was present in the branch at the time, spotted the weapon and immediately took cover, after alerting police.

The men failed to gain entry into the bank, as the main door was locked due to the branch not yet being open, as it was 8:38 a.m.

A comprehensive police operation was launched, with check-points on the roads and a helicopter search team.

The would-be robbers were seen on surveillance cameras checking out the bank's security (including the camera systems), and one was seen kicking at the door and pointing a weapon at the employee.

After failing to break through the main door, the men fled on foot. A witness described seeing a VW Golf car with Bosnian number plates containing five men.

A police check-point spotted a car matching the suspect vehicle attempting to enter a highway on-ramp at nearby Sattledt. After a high-speed chase, the car was intercepted near a small forest, and two of the suspects were immediately arrested. The remaining three were found a short time later, hiding in a cemetery.

According to unconfirmed police reports, the suspects have confessed to planning the robbery a few days ago, and four of the suspects (aged 22-33) traveled from Bosnia specifically for this purpose, joining an accomplice (the 22-year-old getaway car driver) who has already been residing in Austria since several months.

The suspects left three Bosnian passports inside the getaway car in their hurry to escape.

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Are there 'young gangs' forming in Vienna?

Austrian tabloid media jumps on such stories: a group of teenage girls breaking into cars in Linz or vandalism and robberies committed by young people in Vienna. Particularly in the capital, it seems that there was a rise in crimes committed by groups of young people. But does that mean that Vienna has a gang problem?

According to the newspaper daily Der Standard, the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate (LPD) repeatedly states that the much-cited youth gangs do not exist but that there is “an increase in young people appearing in groups and committing offences”.

What does that mean, and what is the difference between “young people appearing in groups and committing offences” and gangs?

According to the police: “The term gang is commonly used in everyday language – without a precise definition in this context. In criminal law, however, the term is clearly defined. From a criminal law perspective, a gang is an organised, hierarchically structured group of people intent on committing offences on an ongoing basis.”

READ ALSO: Which crimes are on the rise in Austria?

According to the police, they are dealing with “groups that come together spontaneously” and are not “hierarchically organised.” These groups mostly commit “thefts or minor robberies” but are not criminal organisations.

So, technically, Vienna does not have a “youth gang” problem, but it does have an increase in young people in groups committing crimes – though the police didn’t share official numbers.

A recent Kurier report stated that the number of crimes committed by young people and children under the age of 14 has doubled in the last ten years.

At the same time, there has only been a slight increase among young people over the age of 14 and even a decrease among young adults. The main crimes committed by young people and adolescents are theft, damage to property, assault, burglary and dangerous threats.

Christian Holzhacker, Head of Education at the Association of Viennese Youth Centers, told Der Standard that it is important not to “stigmatise” an age group and that the word gang is often used in an “inflationary way”. He points out that in relation to the size of the Viennese population, the number of minors committing crimes is small, even if it is increasing.

He also highlighted that stigmatising regions or groups of young people who get together in public spaces is not the answer. “If you want to fight crime, you have to look at the realities of the lives of the people who have committed crimes,” he said.

READ ALSO: Is Vienna a safe city to visit?

What are the police doing about the crime?

Austria’s federal criminal police office has gathered a new special task force to combat youth crime (EJK). According to the Ministry of the Interior, the idea is to recognise the new phenomenon and combat youth gangs in Austria.

The task force is set to carry out checks in public spaces, particularly in urban areas and “potential hotspots”, Kurier reported.

The task force also set up a “panel of experts” to suggest how parents can be more responsible, how children’s use of social media and cell phones can be improved, and how the asylum system can better accommodate young migrants.

However, Dieter Csefan, head of the task force, told Die Presse that most young offenders were born in Austria.

“There are unaccompanied minors, but the young people we meet in the groups and gangs usually have parents. And the prolific offenders often come from a normal home. They can also be native Austrians. So it’s not always just Afghans or Syrians”, he said.

He also mentioned that “lowering the age of criminal responsibility is one suggestion” to fight crime. Currently, the age is set at 18, but there are discussions and proposals to lower it to twelve. However, “that alone is not necessarily enough”, he added.

READ NEXT: Which parts of Austria have the highest crime rates?

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