Home invasion

Crooks used AI as accomplices in robbery

The idyllic spa town of Bad Ischl was - once again - the scene of a sensational criminal case.

(Bild: Markus Wenzel)

An Ischl man was tortured and robbed at home, he is in intensive care. Now it has been revealed: The two perpetrators used a smartphone AI as an accomplice, had demands to hand over all money spoken by computer voice. 

Attacked, tortured and robbed in his own home: this nightmare, which is often referred to as a home invasion, happened to an Ischl resident at 5.30 a.m. on Monday. As reported, two masked men had entered the building through the unlocked cellar door and covered the eyes of the owner (44), who was sleeping on the living room couch, and gagged him.

Voice came from the smartphone
As has since become known, the two criminals had used the artificial intelligence of their smartphones to give the victim instructions. They held the cell phone to the Ischl man's ear, then a computer voice told him to hand over his money. He gave the duo a low four-digit amount, i.e. up to around 3000 euros.

45-minute ordeal
However, the robbery only escalated fully when the 44-year-old refused to open his safe. The gangsters kicked and punched him harder and harder. Only after about 45 minutes of martyrdom was the victim tied up and locked in the boiler room - the duo fled. The seriously injured 44-year-old was able to climb outside through a window, where a neighbor helped him.

Two vertebrae also broken
Due to the severity of his injuries - in addition to ribs, two vertebrae were also broken - he was transferred to the intensive care unit at the Salzkammergut Clinic in Bad Ischl.

"Perpetrators like this don't care about their victims," says Christoph Weber from the public prosecutor's office in Wels, which is investigating the case of aggravated robbery. A trio of crooks who robbed former provincial councillor Josef Fill (ÖVP) and his family in Gurten last year were sentenced to prison terms of four, ten and eleven years in Ried this year.