North Rhine-Westphalia: Ex-opera boss puts grandson trickster behind bars

Dusseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The former head of administration at the Dusseldorf Opera, Werner Hellfritzsch (74), earns unusual merits in retirement: he hunts down grandchildren tricksters.

North Rhine-Westphalia: Ex-opera boss puts grandson trickster behind bars

Dusseldorf (dpa / lnw) - The former head of administration at the Dusseldorf Opera, Werner Hellfritzsch (74), earns unusual merits in retirement: he hunts down grandchildren tricksters. District judge Mihael Pohar expressly praised Hellfritzsch's commitment on Tuesday as "strong".

Hellfritzsch had previously testified as a witness to how he once again exposed grandchildren's tricks in February. A previously convicted 46-year-old who acted as a money collector was given a year and a half in prison without parole for commercial gang fraud on Tuesday.

"Around 3:40 p.m. my landline phone rang," Hellfritzsch said in court. First there was a sobbing woman on the other end of the line: she caused a fatal accident and would be arrested if she didn't get bail.

Then a supposed public prosecutor claimed that the woman was the daughter of the former opera boss. But Hellfritzsch has no daughter. "But I wanted to put a stop to the scammers," said the 74-year-old, playing the evil game.

In order to alert the police at the same time, he feigned problems with his safe and an "urgent age-related need". On the advice of the police, he did not comply with the caller's request to bring gold and money to the Düsseldorf court cash register: he was too bad on his feet.

When the fraudsters then sent the money collector to his home, the police were already waiting. The court did not believe his assurances that he had known nothing about the previous history, not least in view of the criminal record.

At the end of November 2021, scammers had already failed with the same scam on Hellfritzsch. At that time it was daughter "Erika" and a false prosecutor who tried to take him by surprise. An 18-year-old was arrested while collecting money and sentenced to juvenile detention.