Major operation with success

Thieves break open offering box: Pursuit by helicopter

The police have started investigations.(Bild: ZOOM Tirol)

The police launched a large-scale manhunt around Brixen im Thale (Tyrolean district of Kitzbühel) on Tuesday afternoon after a witness saw two men trying to fish money out of an offering box in the church. Three suspects were eventually caught.

Two of the men were caught red-handed shortly after 4pm on Tuesday as they attempted to fish money out of an offering box in the parish church in Brixen. The two then fled and the witness raised the alarm. The police then launched a large-scale manhunt with several police patrols, a police helicopter, a drone and three dog patrols.

A large-scale manhunt was immediately launched for the two perpetrators.

Die Polizei in einer Aussendung

Information from the public initially suggested that the two suspects might have fled into the forest above the church, but the investigators were unable to find them there. So they followed up another tip that the men might have boarded a train in the direction of Westendorf and got off again there. 

Suspected thieves and getaway drivers caught
The police actually found the two perpetrators - two 33-year-old Romanians - at the train station in Westendorf. A 21-year-old Romanian was also arrested, "who had presumably acted as the driver of the getaway vehicle", according to the investigators.

Two of the men confessed during the arrest and all three were taken to the Kitzbühel police station. Their interrogations and further investigations are still ongoing. It is still unclear whether they took anything at all.