Purse thieves

44,000 damage! Police catch wallet gang

Investigators from the Salzburg State Criminal Police Office have tracked down a gang of four thieves who are said to have stolen a total of 44,000 euros through purse thefts. The quartet operated throughout Austria in supermarkets, where they stole wallets from customers.

31 coups were proven, in 15 of which the victims made it too easy for them: in addition to credit or ATM cards, they also had the secret codes in their wallets. The perpetrators then immediately withdrew the money.

The main suspect, a 26-year-old Romanian, was arrested on October 1 on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the St. Pölten public prosecutor's office in Tyrol, as the Salzburg police announced in a press release on Sunday. He was partially confessed and was in custody. The remaining three Romanian accomplices, his 30-year-old partner and two men aged 50 and 39, were still being sought.

On a theft spree in a rented car
The robberies took place between the beginning of May and the beginning of October. The couple rented a car especially for this purpose. They then set off from Romania to Salzburg, Lower Austria, Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Tyrol. They are also accused of two rental frauds in restaurants in Carinthia and Lower Austria.

In a press release on Sunday, the police expressly asked people never to leave their wallets in their shopping carts. The secret codes for ATM or credit cards should also never be written down or carried in the wallet.