After a failed luxury watch robbery in Berlin-Grunewald, three Italians were arrested in Dresden on suspicion of attempted aggravated robbery.
As the Dresden public prosecutor announced on Monday, three men aged 23, 37 and 44 are being investigated. They are accused of having joined forces with other accomplices “to form an internationally operating gang in order to attack people with high-priced wristwatches in a targeted and collaborative manner” and to tear them down by force.
At least three gang members are said to have traveled to Germany for this. According to the Dresden investigators, they are said to have specialized in keeping an eye out for people wearing expensive wristwatches on Kurfürstendamm and the surrounding area in spring and summer. They are said to have followed the victims home in order to rob them in a targeted manner.
The three suspects were arrested after an attempted robbery of a 76-year-old in Berlin last Saturday. As the investigators described, the man came from a hairdressing appointment on Hohenzollerndamm in the afternoon and got into his Bentley on Karlsbader Straße, which he drove home to Grunewald. There he drove through an electronic gate to the entrance to an underground car park and opened it.
When he had almost parked in his parking space, one of the suspects with motorcycle clothing and a helmet is said to have stepped on the driver’s side. The 76-year-old assumed he had made a driving mistake and opened the door. The accused is said to have violently grabbed his wrist, on which he was wearing an “Audemars Piguet” watch, which costs around EUR 40,000.
The 76-year-old was injured in the back in a fight that lasted a few minutes, but the alleged attacker was unable to steal the watch: it tore off during the fight and slipped into the victim’s sleeve. However, his car rolled against the wall of the underground car park during the incident.
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The suspect fled without the loot on a motorcycle, with which another suspect was waiting at the entrance to the underground car park, according to the public prosecutor. When escaping from the crime scene, the two men finally climbed over the garden fence and drove to Dresden in a waiting car, which was being driven by a third suspect. They were arrested there by the Dresden police on the same day. Arrest warrants were issued for the three on Sunday. The men were taken into custody.
