Brutal home invasions

Woman beaten with a hammer: gangs behind bars

The crime scene in Würnitz: the husband rushed to help his wife, was attacked himself and shot the robbers with a legally possessed weapon before fleeing.(Bild: LPD NÖ)

Investigators in Lower Austria have solved two brutal home invasions. The victims were seriously injured. The perpetrators - both times a group of Romanians - are in custody. 

These are crimes with serious consequences. The perpetrators are extremely brutal and penetrate the most intimate areas: their own four walls. The victims suffer injuries (physical and psychological) that they have to deal with for the rest of their lives. Two of these so-called home invasions have now been solved in Lower Austria. In the case of the attack on a married couple in Würnitz in the district of Korneuburg on February 7, four Romanians (22, 40, 45 and 46 years old) were arrested.

Bullet hole in Würnitz(Bild: LPD NÖ)

Presenting the successful strike against organized crime: Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, LKA Chief Stefan Pfandler, Head of Investigations Josef Deutsch and Police Director Franz Popp (from left).(Bild: BMI)

The resident of the house in Würnitz was attacked with this hammer. She is still struggling with the consequences of the attack today.(Bild: LPD NÖ)

The perpetrators were masked with balaclavas.(Bild: LPD NÖ)

The masked men had broken into the house during the night and attacked the occupant several times with a hammer. The woman suffered massive injuries. The husband shot the perpetrators in self-defense. One of the Romanians was injured. Two of them were also involved in a robbery in Vienna in November of the previous year. They threatened and tied up the security employee of a supermarket and demanded that he open the safe. They did not succeed. Instead, the criminals made off with high-priced spirits.

Further crimes suspected
All four perpetrators from Würnitz - Marius J., Liviu M., Gustav B. and Isac N. - are in custody and have partially confessed to the crimes. They are likely to have committed many more criminal acts in Austria and abroad, and investigations are ongoing. 

And in Hinterbrühl in the district of Mödling, three masked men (also Romanians) forced their way into the house of a 67-year-old man with a weapon. They beat the man to the ground, threatened his bedridden mother (95), her nurse and the 67-year-old's brother, who had rushed to the scene, and then fled with the stolen silver cutlery. In addition to the physical abuse, the victims all suffered severe shock. The Romanians have already been sentenced to several years in prison. One perpetrator is currently still in custody pending extradition. 

What victims should do

In the event of a home invasion, the police advise victims not to resist under any circumstances, to comply with all demands and instructions, to hand over valuables, to allow the perpetrators to escape unhindered and, at best, to be as attentive as possible in order to be able to provide specific information about the criminals afterwards.

Two to five cases per year in Lower Austria
"The Lower Austrian State Office of Criminal Investigation has succeeded in striking a double blow against organized crime," says Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. With two to five crimes per year in Lower Austria, the clear-up rate is 80 percent, according to LKA chief Stefan Pfandler. "The victims are tied up, humiliated, beaten and threatened and sometimes have to wait hours for help," explains Pfandler. We owe it to the victims to solve such serious crimes quickly.