The series of raids on Munich gas stations seems to have been cleared up. Special units arrested a 25-year-old man in his apartment in Ludwigsvorstadt on Tuesday; he is accused of a total of eleven acts, nine completed and two attempted. The man has already made a comprehensive confession and is now in custody. If convicted, he faces several years in prison, prosecutor Juliane Grotz said at a press conference on Thursday. The currently unemployed man had only stolen a mid-four-digit amount, plus tobacco products and alcoholic beverages with an unspecified value, as reported by Stefan Grube, head of the robbery commissioner.
The police tracked down the perpetrator through forensic crime scene work, which is mainly known from American crime series – in this case using a discarded cigarette butt. It was secured on February 12 after the tenth robbery near the crime scene in Gasteig and could be unequivocally assigned to the 25-year-old in a DNA comparison. As Grube explained, the man was already known to the police for drug and theft offenses, among other things; his DNA profile was due to extortion robbery.
The series began on January 5th with a robbery at a gas station on Kapuzinerstraße; the perpetrator even visited them again a month later. Acts followed on Landsberger Strasse, Bodenseestrasse, Lortzingstrasse, Nymphenburger Strasse, Leonrodstrasse, Hochstrasse and most recently on February 19 on Martin-Luther-Strasse in Obergiesing. The perpetrator failed in two attempts, each on January 20 in the city center. Nevertheless, he didn’t give up that day until he was successful in Pasing.
He carried a soft air pistol with him during the raids
The description of the perpetrator was similar in all cases, as was the procedure, as the head of the police department, Stefan Grube, explained: The man always waited until there were no customers in the sales room and then asked for cash from the gas station employee at the checkout, and sometimes he also took cigarettes and alcoholic beverages.
He backed up his demands by pointing to a gun stuck in his waistband. It was a so-called apparent weapon (also known as a soft-air pistol in colloquial language), which, however, cannot be distinguished from a sharp firearm in terms of its appearance, as Grube said. The 25-year-old pulled the gun out of his waistband three times, but never aimed it at a person. Nevertheless, according to Grube, the threat can traumatize victims in the long term.
As the prosecutor Grotz announced, the 25-year-old “explicitly apologized for the crimes” before the investigating judge. Like the quick and comprehensive confession, this could have the effect of reducing the sentence. Normally, such predatory blackmail with what appears to be a weapon carries a penalty of at least three years imprisonment in individual cases. However, a cumulative penalty will be imposed for a series. In view of the small amount of loot, the perpetrator is likely to come to the conclusion that the raids were hardly worthwhile.