Day care center in Halver: Toniebox convicts burglars – Panorama

The day care center “Wundertüte” in Halver, a small town in North Rhine-Westphalia, has had all the major German television stations visiting over the past few months. The reason: One night in April, a burglar stole frozen fish fingers and the children’s so-called Toniebox, among other things. Thanks to the cube-shaped device on which even toddlers can play audio books or music themselves, the 44-year-old thief has now been convicted. The idea of ​​locating the device came from Marcel Rau, 47, one of the educators.

SZ: Mr. Rau, on Monday the police brought the Toniebox back to you at the day care center. How did the children react?

Marcel Rau: They were very surprised because for most children “stolen” automatically means “gone”. But all stolen things have already been replaced by us or our patrons. We even got very good sausages instead of fish fingers.

What were the most absurd objects that were stolen?

Phew, there are many. In addition to many books, glasses and plates, there were also kettles, cordless drills, fragrance sprays, pots, preserving jars, milk, apple juice and potatoes. The thief also unpacked a pair of headphones. But when he saw that the plug was out of date, he apparently left it behind.

Does that sound like the burglar stole half a facility?

It was definitely not a “normal” break-in as we usually have it every two years. They just broke open the office door and looked for money or laptops. This time we suspect: the man has children himself and does not have the means to buy them these items. Because if he had wanted to sell the things, he could have taken the second Toniebox with him, for example. But he just left it behind. He must have looked carefully at what he can use.

The children wrote a public letter to the thief shortly after the break-in. In it they say he could have just rung them.

An educator had the idea to write down what the children think about it. After all, it was really they and not us employees who were stolen. It’s just a shame, we could have managed all of this through the friends’ association. We like to share our toys with others.

The burglar did not respond to the letter. In the end, was it your idea that convicted him?

Exactly. You have a kind of profile in the Tonie app. One day after the theft, I tried to locate the box via the respective WiFi. But only the manufacturer is allowed to do that, and they, in turn, were not allowed to tell me anything for data protection reasons. But the public prosecutor does.

The house could then be located and finally searched. What came up again?

A lot. The police called us directly on site and asked which Tonie characters were stolen to identify us. Unfortunately Leo Lausemaus did not appear again, but the reading lion, Benjamin Blümchen and many others are back.

Were the children afraid after the break-in?

They react very differently to something like that. Many then of course ask whether the thief is still there or how he got in. One boy always wanted to protect our boss after the break-in. Others didn’t care, they just didn’t care. And probably nobody will break in that quickly.

Is there an alarm system now?

Not only that. We recently moved to a new facility due to lack of space. Since then we are no longer as hidden as we used to be, but very exposed. The neighbors can all look in, and the whole building is illuminated.

The perpetrator is now in custody, presumably for further offenses. He probably had no relation to the daycare center. Do you see the incident as a serious story or a funny one?

We took it seriously, of course – but there is a certain oddity about it. The police couldn’t help but smile when they came to the crime scene. The whole thing is nice strange.

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