200,000 euros loot

Professional burglar (73) denies despite DNA hit

(Bild: Lucky Business, stock.adobe.com)

The accused is conspicuously small and talks a lot. He is accused of burglaries in residential buildings with almost 600,000 euros in damage, including 200,000 euros in loot. He denies the charges - with adventurous explanations.

The Hungarian defendant is 73, less than 150 centimetres tall, has been retired since 2016 - and is said to be a professional burglar. The previous convictions already point to this: four convictions in his home country, one each in Germany and Switzerland - all for burglaries in residential properties. He has already served time in a cell for this.

Seven burglaries with almost 600,000 euros in damage

As the prosecutor presented at the trial on Thursday, he is also said to have struck here in Germany: seven times between October 2021 and November 2022. The prosecutor speaks of almost 600,000 euros in damage: the perpetrator proceeded in a targeted manner, always with the same modus operandi. He drilled open the locks on patio doors, broke into homes and pried open safes - or took them with him. He made almost 200,000 euros in loot. If the burglary had failed, there would have been a whopping 370,000 euros worth of gold and money in one safe.

DNA traces always found at crime scenes purely by chance

What the accused can also do: talk at length. "I didn't commit these crimes, there are no witnesses, no fingerprints. I wasn't in court until 69," the man emphasized. Judge Anna-Sophia Hofer had to stop him at the start of the trial when he began to talk about his 24-year-old son: He is studying in Los Angeles and is in the Air Force. He has already been to Las Vegas and lives with his wife in Verona.

Relatives are questioned about his alibi

His attempts at an explanation were similarly adventurous: in a jewelry store burglary in Linz, where his DNA was found, he had "perhaps touched the broken shop window" while strolling around. In another case in Salzburg, he met a woman in a bar and drank with her. Later, in the cab, she grabbed his crotch, he got out in a rage - and went to sleep in the nearest garden shed. There he accidentally touched the very tool that was later used to break into the apartment next door. "I was never in that apartment," said the senior citizen.

And he was in Hungary at all other times of the crime, as several relatives can testify. The judge wants to hear this from the alleged alibi witnesses herself and adjourned the trial until May 28.