Munich Hunts Bank Robbing Pensioner

Spiegel

Germany

January 11, 2007

Munich police have dubbed the senior citizen "The Shooter." Since 2004 he has conducted armed robbery against a number of banks and supermarkets -- making away with thousands of euros. Despite the thief's carelessness, police still haven't succeeded in tracking him.

Munich police are hunting a 70-year-old pensioner who has robbed nine banks and supermarkets in the city and who is believed to have escaped on a purple bicycle in at least one case.

"We've dubbed him 'The Shooter' because he has fired his pistol into the air during three of the robberies," Hans Urban, head of Munich police's robbery investigation unit, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "He's dangerous because he's got a real pistol. He used to be hectic in his initial robberies but he's calmed down since."

His last robbery, of a bank last November, took just three minutes and he got away with €9,000. He was so brazen or foolish that he didn't wear a mask, allowing police to get a security camera image of him.

"He's well above 60, about 70 years old," said Urban. "He's definitely no dodderer though, he seems quite agile."

Police are so intent on catching him that they are featuring the case in a nationwide TV crime show next month to appeal for witnesses, said Urban. They have offered a reward of €6,000 and investigators have visited old people's homes in their hunt for "The Shooter," which began in autumn 2004.

As the population gradually ages, so do the villains, it seems. Or maybe recent pension cuts in Germany have simply gone too far. Less than a year ago, a Berlin court jailed a 70-year-old grandmother for robbing a bank of €8,000 with a toy gun.