GPS tracker installed

Tobacconist tracked cigarette thief on his cell phone

Symbolic image

(Bild: Andreas Graf (Symbolbild))

A cigarette vending machine in Kilb in the district of Melk (Lower Austria) has been looted for the third time. However, the tobacconist was prepared for the last robbery and tracked the thief using a GPS tracker. 

Last Thursday, a thief targeted the cigarette vending machine belonging to tobacconist Herbert Fried from Kilb in the district of Melk. It was the third time in three months that someone had tried to plunder the vending machine. So the tobacconist prepared himself. He placed a GPS tracker in a pack of cigarettes.

The perpetrator had not expected this during his coup. After welding open the vending machine and making off with the cigarettes and cash, Fried alerted the police. The GPS tracker provided him with information on the location of the pack of cigarettes on his cell phone. Together with the police, the tobacconist finally went on the hunt for the criminals. 

Perpetrators on the run
30 police officers were deployed, reports noe.ORF.at. The Rapid Intervention Unit and police dogs also helped in the search for the thief. The perpetrator had fled via country lanes and side roads, but eventually returned to Kilb. There he left the car in a housing estate and fled on foot. He left the loot and the packet of cigarettes, including the GPS tracker, in a plastic bag in a garden.

According to police spokesman Johann Baumschlager, the identity of the perpetrator is now known. According to Baumschlager, there were documents in the vehicle that could be traced back to the driver. The manhunt is underway.