Serial offender confesses:

“I only came to Austria to steal”

(Bild: thinkstockphotos.de)

A professional thief lay in wait in supermarkets to steal customers' wallets unnoticed. He used the stolen ATM cards to plunder the victims' accounts. Thanks to a mugshot, the Romanian was caught with an accomplice. The main perpetrator made a full confession. Imprisonment! 

The callous criminal tourist was first noticed on May 25 at the Intro-Park shopping center in Siegendorf. The clever perpetrator stole a supermarket customer's wallet - including his ATM card and PIN. Shortly afterwards, the Romanian used it to withdraw 400 euros from a bank branch in Eisenstadt and disappeared.

Checks in front of supermarkets
What the thief did not know: After a report was filed, the footage from the bank's surveillance camera could be analyzed for a manhunt. The police stepped up their checks near the supermarkets around the first crime scene.

Patrol officers recognized the perpetrator
Days later, the hardened criminal tourist returned to Siegendorf. Attentive officers on patrol immediately spotted similarities with the wanted thief. The Romanian was traveling with a fellow countryman. The check immediately confirmed the suspicion and both were arrested.

Interrogation before arrest
All further investigations consistently showed that the two men were professional criminals. The morning before their arrest, they had struck at a supermarket in Mattersburg. There, they also stole a customer's wallet and ATM card. "I came to Austria to steal," the main perpetrator stated in the interrogation without a care in the world.

A whole series of coups
He is said to be responsible for a dozen purse thefts within a few days. The public prosecutor's office in Eisenstadt applied for his arrest. The accomplice got off free with a charge. Cash and the cell phone of the main perpetrator were seized. Investigators are now beginning to meticulously investigate all the coups committed by the brazen criminal-tourist duo.