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CRIME

Drug addict bank robber ‘wanted to go to jail’

A drug addict tried to rob a bank in Frankfurt - not to feed his habit, but so he would be put in jail where he could go cold turkey and beat his habit. He was handed a cup of coffee rather than cash by bank staff.

Published: 4 February 2014 15:04 CET
Drug addict bank robber 'wanted to go to jail'
No jail for the would-be robber. Photo: DPA

And rather than prosecute the 44-year-old man, authorities decided to let him walk, leaving him to get help for his addiction on his own.

The man entered the Deutsche Bank on Monday morning, and initially queued up along with the other customers.

When he got to the bank teller, he handed over a note which read: "This is a robbery! I need money." He demanded €1,000.

But the man did not really want the money, and told the 23-year-old bank worker to press the alarm button.

They started chatting, and he admitted to her that he was actually seeking to be arrested so he could come off drugs.

The bank employee offered him a seat and a cup of coffee, while they waited for the police to arrive.

Other customers did not even realize they were involved in an on-going, would-be robbery, Frankfurt police said in a statement.

When officers got to the bank in central Frankfurt, they took the wannabe robber to the station, where he admitted everything, stressing he wanted to go to prison to get off drugs.

But he even failed to get this far.

"He didn't hurt anyone, didn't damage anything, so there was no reason for us to hold him. He was offered advice on where he could seek help for his addiction independently," a police spokesman told The Local, adding that it was not clear what drugs he had been taking.

READ MORE: Teen robs bank with toy gun, flees on bicycle

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CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Published: 5 May 2024 12:52 CEST
Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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