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Betting shop coup: Robbers surrender to the police

The two robbers had set their sights on this small betting café in Klagenfurt.

(Bild: Claudia Fischer)

A few days after the mugshots were published in the media, the handcuffs clicked for two betting shop robbers. The duo handed themselves in to the authorities. Together they had robbed a small pub in Klagenfurt at the beginning of January.

Masked with balaclavas and hoods and dressed in black, the criminals stormed the restaurant in Florian-Gröger-Straße at 00:29 on January 11, threatened the employee with a silver-colored pistol and demanded cash with a southern accent. After the employee had opened the cash drawer, the duo stuffed around 5800 euros into the rucksack they had brought with them and fled.

Despite a large deployment of patrol cars including the Cobra task force, the rapid intervention group, a sniffer dog and air support from the "Flir" police helicopter, the criminals were able to escape. The investigation by the State Office of Criminal Investigation was in full swing - which ultimately led to the recovery of images of the suspects from surrounding surveillance cameras.

Croatian man lived in Spittal an der Drau
These were subsequently published around two weeks ago in the "Krone" newspaper, among others. Apparently the decisive step in the manhunt: the pressure from the public "hunt" apparently became so great that the two suspects decided to hand themselves in. Just four days after the report, the first of the two, a Croatian (17) living in Spittal an der Drau, walked into the provincial criminal police office.

Loot squandered in bars
Five days later, his compatriot of the same age also turned himself in. As the two suspected robbers confessed during questioning, they had traveled directly to their home country of Croatia after the robbery coup - where they spent the looted money in various bars.