They only need 79 seconds: Apparents, run in, spray pepper spray, smash glass cases, collect watches and jewelry, then get out again.
Too many customers were not yet at KaDeWe on this Saturday morning just before Christmas 2014 when the spectacular robbery took place at just after ten o'clock.
Another shouts "Dawai, Dawai" so that people think the perpetrators are Russians.
With the loot worth more than 800,000 euros, the robbers, including Ali H. and Mehmet A., drive to Neukölln to a rental house where Zaki and Jehad live: father and son, leaders of the extended Arab family of the Al-Zeins.
Up four flights of stairs, then right.
Zaki is already waiting.
more on the subject
SPIEGEL TV from October 5th, 2020: The power of the clans
SPIEGEL TV from October 19th, 2020: The power of the clans, part 2
Attack on luxury department store: Almost seven years in prison for KaDeWe robbers
Machinations of a large family: "Dad, we did the KaDeWe!" By Thomas Heise and Claas Meyer-Heuer
The godfather leaves Germany: Departure of clan boss Mahmoud Al Zein
Ali H. later described what happened then to investigators from the LKA: »When we came into the apartment, Jehad first put the loot on the table and said: ›Dad, we did the KaDeWe‹«.
Then Papa Zaki is said to have asked for his share.
Fifty percent.
After all, it was his idea.
In the sixth episode of the SPIEGEL TV podcast "Im Verhör", investigative reporters Claas Meyer-Heuer and Thomas Heise, together with Christina Pohl, reconstruct one of Berlin's most spectacular criminal cases.
In the end, the getaway vehicle becomes fatal for the perpetrators.
