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Teenager keeps cool head as masked burglars tie up mum

A brave 13-year-old kept her cool and called the police after two masked men broke into her family’s home in Austria’s western state of Vorarlberg on Wednesday evening.

Published: 24 November 2016 11:04 CET

Teenager keeps cool head as masked burglars tie up mum

Photo: Paul Gillingwater

Police said the men, both Bosnian citizens, rang the doorbell of the house in Götzis at around 6.45pm, wearing balaclavas. When the girl’s mother opened the door they pushed their way into the house and tied her up and gagged her with gaffer tape. The 13-year-old was upstairs but she heard her mother shouting and quickly called the police – and then hid in a walk-in closet.

One of the men began to search the house for valuables but didn’t realise that the girl was hiding in one of the bedrooms.

Meanwhile the girl’s mother was able to free herself and managed to escape out the front door. She was met by a police unit which had surrounded the house. Police made contact with the 13-year-old girl, and helped her climb out of the bedroom window using a ladder.

Armed police then searched the house and found the two men hiding in the attic. They were arrested at around 8.15pm.

Police said that one of the men, who is not a resident of Austria, arrived in the country two weeks ago. It appears that the two Bosnians, aged 29 and 33, had already selected the house as a target. One of the Bosnians is an Austrian resident, and works for a parcel delivery company. He had delivered parcels from the owner of the house to his business address. The men assumed that the family had money, and possibly a safe inside the house.

Luckily the woman and her daughter did not suffer any serious injuries, and were cared for by a specially trained team of counsellors on Wednesday night.

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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