Battering ram crime in Graz

Dorotheum burglars sentenced to prison

The hole is gaping behind the white chipboard.

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

In Vienna, members of an international battering ram gang are currently on trial. And in Graz, two Romanians also had to answer for a brutal jewelry store burglary in the city center on Tuesday, where their own car was their undoing.

Graz was the scene of a spectacular burglary at the beginning of March. Violent criminals drove a car into the window display of the Dorotheum auction house in the city center. However, it took three noisy attempts to get inside. The car was ten centimeters too big. If the perpetrators had had a smaller vehicle, they would have been able to get through the glass display case in one go. However, they failed twice against the wall to the right and left of the shop window. If they had succeeded immediately as planned, they would probably have been over the hill before the police arrived.

Battering ram car with a broken axle
Inside the store, the masked burglars snatched almost 300,000 euros worth of jewelry and fled in the direction of the freeway in their badly battered Alfa Romeo. However, because ramming the display had taken so much time and the vehicle with the broken axle was not really moving very quickly, the police were able to stop the perpetrators in Münzgrabenstraße not far from the scene of the crime. The sports bag full of jewelry was still in the car.

(Bild: Christian Jauschowetz)

Members of a notorious clan
The two suspects are believed to be members of an international gang that has already robbed jewelry stores in England, Denmark and Germany. The two Romanians (41 and 48 years old) are said to belong to a notorious clan that does not shy away from homicide.

Partial prison sentence
However, this membership could not be proven beyond doubt, which is why they were only charged with aggravated theft by burglary on Tuesday. The court sentenced them both to 18 months in prison, six months of which were unconditional. The sentence is not final, the public prosecutor's office immediately filed an appeal.