Elderly women cheated: Two 18 and 19-year-olds arrested in a raid in the Weilheim-Schongau district

Created: 02/27/2022, 14:25

By: Boris Forstner

Two senior citizens from Munich were deprived of thousands of euros by fake police officers - now two suspects have been arrested in the Weilheim-Schongau district.

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Criminals try to rip off seniors with phone calls almost every day - unfortunately sometimes with success.

During a raid on Friday, the police arrested two suspects aged 18 and 19 from the Weilheim-Schongau district.

District

– It was a concerted action on Friday: Under the direction of the “Phenomena” working group of the Munich police headquarters, which also included officers from the Oberbayern-Süd police headquarters, two 18- and 19-year-old German suspects were arrested in the Weilheim-Schongau district the emergency services arrested.

"Following this, a total of four apartments were searched to find evidence," said a police spokesman.

Two young men arrested - one is still a student

The two young men, one a student and the other a trainee, are "after intensive criminal investigations" suspected of having participated in two crimes in the field of organized call center fraud (the phenomenon of false police officers, hence the name of the working group) at the beginning of February - namely as a pick-up for an international criminal group.

Both times the victims were elderly women in their 70s.

Based on the findings, the Munich public prosecutor's office I applied for arrest warrants and search warrants for both suspects on suspicion of involvement in a crime of gang and commercial fraud.

The first case took place between February 3rd and 7th.

According to the police, an over 70-year-old senior from Munich-Schwabing received a call on her landline phone from a previously unknown male perpetrator.

After introducing himself on the phone as a police officer, he pretended that there had been a number of robberies in the neighborhood and offered to take cash, jewelery and valuables from the victim to the police as a precautionary measure.

Handed over several thousand euros in cash

After the injured party believed the caller, she handed over various valuables and several thousand euros in cash to a hitherto unknown male collector, first on February 3 and four days later.

The second case also took place on February 3rd.

A male caller contacted a senior woman in her 70s, this time from Munich-Bogenhausen, on her landline.

In this case, too, the stranger initially introduced himself as a police officer and worried the lady that her assets in the apartment were in danger from burglars.

Other involvements are being investigated

After the caller had asked specifically about the pensioner's existing assets during the further course of the telephone call, he agreed with the injured party that the assets should be picked up by an allegedly civilian police officer.

That happened the same evening, the woman handed over a bag with several thousand euros in cash, jewelry and valuables to a previously unknown male perpetrator - one of the two people arrested from the district?

The investigations will continue to be conducted by the "AG Phenomena".

Possible further involvement of the two arrested persons in similar offenses will also be examined.