Series of robberies in the Vechta district: Police are asking for information about the perpetrators!

Series of robberies in the Vechta district: Police are asking for information about the perpetrators!

In the Vechta district, the investigation into a brutal series of robberies at Combi supermarkets has not yet been completed. In the last two years, four robberies have occurred that have kept the Cloppenburg/Vechta police station very busy. On August 20, 2024, the case will even be presented in the well-known ZDF program “Aktenzeichen

The robberies, which took place between October 2023 and March 2024, were carried out in different ways: always after closing time, while employees were still in the store, and always under the threat of violence. Rewards for relevant information to solve the crimes have now been increased from 3,000 to 5,000 euros in order to encourage the population to help.

The raids in detail

The first attack occurred on October 12, 2023 in the hypermarket on Langfördener Hauptstrasse. There, three men attacked the employees with a gun and a knife and stole a mid-four-figure sum of cash. The group of perpetrators then fled in a dark car. The second incident, on November 3, 2023 in Lutten, had a similar sequence: two masked men threatened the employees with a gun and a kitchen knife and forced the safe to open before fleeing via a side exit in an unknown direction.

On December 16, 2023, there was another robbery in the Combi market on Oldenburger Strasse in Vechta, where a masked perpetrator also broke into the store with a firearm and put employees in a dangerous position. The last attack took place on March 8, 2024 in a market in Lutter. Here, an employee was forced to open the safe and the perpetrator fled in a small car with an unspecified amount of cash. The description of the perpetrator is interesting: around 1.70 meters tall, wore dark outerwear and spoke standard German without an accent, which could indicate a regional connection.

The investigation and the general situation

The case is currently being further investigated under the direction of the Oldenburg public prosecutor's office. The police are asking the public for information and asking: Who noticed anything unusual? Who can provide information about the perpetrators or suspicious vehicles? Information can be given to the police in Cloppenburg on 04471/18600 and in Vechta on 04441/9430. Anonymity is guaranteed and a tip portal from the Lower Saxony police is also activated.

The issue of crime does not only affect the Vechta district. In 2022, a total of around 5.63 million crimes were recorded in Germany, with an increase in theft crimes since 2015. The most common include shoplifting and robberies, with the latter representing a serious problem with over 38,000 cases, reported by Statista. The clearance rate for robbery crimes is almost 60 percent, which shows that many cases can be solved, but the affected markets and their operators are understandably worried.

Let us hope that the increasing publicity through the upcoming television program can contribute to clearing up these serious crimes. The safety of the people of the region is a top priority and should not be threatened by such criminal elements.