Perpetrator only 13 years old

“Nothammer” criminals target cars

Young people have already smashed windows in Vienna dozens of times with an emergency hammer and even "hijacked" cabs for joyrides after breaking and entering. Apparently a new form of gang crime.(Bild: ZOOM Tirol)

The youngest young thief is only 13 years old, but brazen enough to break into a car with accomplices who are only slightly younger!

The trio stood around a parked car in Knotzenbachgasse in Liesing for a conspicuously long time and with conspicuous intensity in broad afternoon light. When there was a soft clanging noise, an eyewitness realized that a gang of boys was at work!

The attentive resident immediately alerted the police. The very quick arrival at the scene of the crime turned out to be a direct hit in terms of a successful official act. The officers immediately recognized from a shattered window that someone had broken in.

Young, but already criminal
The perlustrated youths were a boy (13) and two accomplices, 14 and 15 years old. During the search of the oldest of the three suspects, several car keys, ATM cards and small amounts of narcotics were found.

(Bild: AP/APA/JAKOB LANGWIESER)

Serial offenders at work
Criminologists therefore quite rightly suspect that they could be serial offenders who have already struck several times in this way. In any case, the head of the gang was sent to prison, the other two were initially arrested but then handed over to their legal guardians.

Brazen car thieves
However, this is not the only emergency hammer coup in Vienna this year. As reported, even more brazen young offenders with a migration background had already been caught in the spring. The young people from Chechnya, Syria, Afghanistan and Slovakia had formed a gang that smashed the windows of cabs at a certain location.

What's more, the criminals went on extensive joyrides with the vehicles they had broken into. In total, the 24 boys are said to have committed more than 500 crimes since last fall. The multicultural gang is also responsible for damage to property and other thefts.