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Loose wheel nuts can lead to serious accidents
Photo: Christin Klose / picture alliance / dpa-tmn
A suspected serial offender has been loosening wheel nuts on vehicles in the Neckar-Odenwald district for three years.
So far, the police have had no trace.
On Wednesday, the police headquarters in Heilbronn announced the eightieth case that is said to be related to the series.
This time it hit a truck in Mosbach (Neckar-Odenwald district) that was parked in a parking lot.
Fortunately, the sabotage was noticed in time.
However, accidents have already occurred in two cases.
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The police recorded the most cases near the city of Buchen (Neckar-Odenwald district).
Therefore, the investigators assume a serial offender.
Since the spring of 2020, it is said to have struck at least eighty times.
"We suspect that the number of unreported cases is even higher," said Petra Rutz, spokeswoman for the police in Heilbronn.
However, it cannot be ruled out that there are also imitators.
According to Rutz, the unknown acts mainly in the dark or in remote places.
“The deeds are probably very brief.
A tool is enough to loosen the wheel nuts,” says the spokeswoman.
That makes it difficult to catch him in the act.
Wheel came off while driving
It is also difficult to determine the crime scenes, since the loose wheel nuts are sometimes only noticed days or weeks later.
Often several or all wheels of the vehicles are sabotaged, explains Rutz on Wednesday.
Sometimes this also leads to accidents.
Most recently, in December 2021, a 40-year-old driver was able to prevent worse from happening with an emergency stop.
While driving, the left rear wheel of her car came off.
The wheel rolled into the oncoming lane and collided with another car.
It later turned out that two wheel nuts were loose.
Nobody got hurt.
In mid-2021 there was another accident - the front wheel of a car came off in the middle of the federal highway 27 near Buchen.
Fortunately, there was only material damage here.
Police spokeswoman Rutz speaks of a dangerous intervention in road traffic.
The penalty ranges from a fine to five years in prison.
The police are still looking for witnesses who saw the suspicious.
The people in the district are sensitized.
yeah/dpa