Half a million euros

Record haul at bank with toy gun

After a bank robbery in Vienna, police investigations were in full swing.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Bartel Gerhard, LPD Wien)

Spectacular coup in the German capital! A former prison brother (40) walked into a bank with a toy gun and was able to flee a short time later with almost half a million euros.

With 15 years behind bars so far, the serial supermarket robber has spent almost half of his life in a cell. However, the 40-year-old Austrian's rehabilitation through the deterrent experience of imprisonment apparently did not really work. Because the professional criminal relapsed again ...

Raika looted with toy gun
Armed with a deceptively real-looking toy gun, the robber entered the Raiffeisen-Stadbank at Rochusmarkt in Landstraße a few days ago. As he was caught by the special police unit WEGA while still on the run with the dummy weapon and the money, the coup was lost in the flood of headlines about the ATM burglaries.

This Raiffeisen bank on Vienna's Rochusmarkt was looted by the perpetrator.

(Bild: Bartel Gerhard/Gerhard Bartel)

Using a deceptively real-looking toy pistol (symbolic image), the perpetrator stole a record amount of money.

(Bild: LPD Wien)

However, "Krone" research has now revealed that the suspect was able to enjoy - at least briefly - one of the most astonishing robberies in recent domestic criminal history: Because the 40-year-old packed no less than just under half a million (!) euros from the tills and the safe into a bag he had brought with him.

A crime dies out: Baba, bank robbery?
In any case, the record haul at the Raika branch is highly unusual. Most financial institutions in Austria have now switched to cashless payments.

Domestic branches are now only required to hold small amounts of euros. This is why, according to the Federal Criminal Police Office, classic bank robberies - apart from a series in the Tyrolean capital of Innsbruck - are slowly dying out in the country. Actually ...