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Stickler for low prices: Bonn woman faces jail over supermarket price switches

A district court in Bonn has slapped a month-long suspended sentence on a 62-year-old woman for fraud and forgery of documents, local newspaper Express reported on Friday.

Stickler for low prices: Bonn woman faces jail over supermarket price switches
Illustrative photo of a customer in a hardware shop. Photo: DPA

During the recent trial, the trained paralegal told the court she regretted what she'd done.

On August 8th 2017, the defendant had seen a wine capsule cutter of the “Le Creuset” brand in a hardware store in Bonn and couldn’t resist exchanging its price label for a cheaper one.

After switching the product’s price tag of €10.99 with another one for €2 she’d found elsewhere, she went to the checkout, paid for her purchase and left the shop.

Little did she know though that a detective had been observing her. When the detective approached her in the parking lot, she immediately pulled out the capsule cutter and “generously returned the €2,” Birgit Niepmann, director of the district court, told Express.

The woman's brazen action is the reason why she ended up in court in Bonn and now faces a suspended sentence of one month for falsification of documents and fraud.

But it wasn’t the first time she had been caught manipulating price labels.

At the end of 2014, in a Bonn department store she switched a label of €59.95 on a cosmetics cream product with a sticker stating a price of €2.95. Two shop assistants spoke to her about it when she was about to leave the store.

She was caught for a similar deed in October 2016. At another shop in Germany’s former capital, she had re-labeled a butter dish of the brand “Blomus” from €30 to €1. After a detective approached her, she admitted to her wrongdoing.

The repeat offender has thus far accumulated fines totalling €1,800 for her actions.

Another fine for the woman’s most recent deed was no longer an option, according to judge Tanja Glessner, reported newspaper General-Anzeiger.

If she can't keep her hands off price tags for the next two years and gets caught again, she'll have to spend a month behind bars.

MILITARY

What we know so far about the alleged spies accused of plotting attacks in Germany for Russia

Investigators have arrested two German-Russian men on suspicion of spying for Russia and planning attacks in Germany – including on US army targets – to undermine military support for Ukraine, prosecutors have said.

What we know so far about the alleged spies accused of plotting attacks in Germany for Russia

The pair, identified only as Dieter S. and Alexander J., were arrested in Bayreuth in the southeastern state of Bavaria on Wednesday, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

The main accused, Dieter S., is alleged to have scouted potential targets for attacks, “including facilities of the US armed forces” stationed in Germany.

Russia’s ambassador to Berlin was summoned by the foreign ministry following the arrests.

Germany would not “allow Putin to bring his terror to Germany”, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock subsequently said on X.

But Russian officials rejected the accusations.

“No evidence was presented to prove the detainees’ plans or their possible connection to representatives of Russian structures,” the Russian embassy in Berlin said in a post on X.

Police have searched both men’s homes and places of work.

They are suspected of “having been active for a foreign intelligence service” in what prosecutors described as a “particularly serious case” of espionage.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser likewise called the allegations “a particularly serious case of suspected agent activity for (Vladimir) Putin’s criminal regime”.

“We will continue to thwart such threat plans,” she said, reiterating Germany’s steadfast support for Ukraine.

How US army facilities were targeted 

“We can never accept that espionage activities in Germany take place,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.

According to prosecutors, Dieter S. had been exchanging information with a person linked to Russian intelligence services since October 2023, discussing possible acts of sabotage.

“The actions were intended, in particular, to undermine the military support provided from Germany to Ukraine against the Russian aggression,” prosecutors said.

The accused allegedly expressed readiness to “commit explosive and arson attacks mainly on military infrastructure and industrial sites in Germany”.

Dieter S. collected information about potential targets, “including facilities of the US armed forces”.

Fellow accused Alexander J. began assisting him from March 2024, they added.

Dieter S. scouted potential targets by taking photos and videos of military transport and equipment. He then allegedly shared the information with his contact person.

Der Spiegel magazine reported that the military facilities spied on included the US army base in Grafenwoehr in Bavaria.

“Among other things, there is an important military training area there where the US army trains Ukrainian soldiers, for example on Abrams battle tanks,” Der Spiegel wrote.

Dieter S. faces an additional charge of belonging to a “foreign terrorist organisation”. Prosecutors said they suspect he was a fighter in an armed unit of eastern Ukraine’s self-proclaimed pro-Russian “People’s Republic of Donetsk” in 2014-2016.

Espionage showdown 

Germany is Ukraine’s second-largest supplier of military aid, and news of the spy arrests came as Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck was on a visit to Kyiv.

“We will continue to provide Ukraine with massive support and will not allow ourselves to be intimidated,” Interior Minister Faeser said.

Germany has been shaken by several cases of alleged spying for Russia since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, amid suggestions that some German officials have been too sympathetic with Moscow in the past.

A former German intelligence officer is on trial in Berlin, accused of handing information to Moscow that showed Germany had access to details of Russian mercenary operations in Ukraine. He denies the charges.

In November 2022, a German man was handed a suspended sentence for passing information to Russian intelligence while serving as a German army reserve officer.

“We know that the Russian power apparatus is also focusing on our country — we must respond to this threat with resistance and determination,” Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said Thursday.

READ ALSO: Two Germans charged with treason in Russia spying case

Additionally, a man suspected of aiding a plot by Russian intelligence services to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been arrested in Poland, on Thursday, according to Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors.

It said the suspect had stated he was “ready to act on behalf of the military intelligence services of the Russian Federation and established contact with Russian citizens directly involved in the war in Ukraine”.

Russian authorities for their part have levelled treason charges against dozens of people accused of aiding Kyiv and the West since the invasion.

A Russian court sentenced a resident of Siberia’s Omsk region to 12 years in jail earlier this month for trying to pass secrets to the German government in exchange for help moving there.

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