Oberhausen (dpa / lnw) - The series of burglaries coupled with vandalism at Oberhausen schools, kindergartens and gyms has been cleared up. It is believed that almost a dozen children (up to the age of 13) and a 16-year-old youth are responsible for it, said a police spokesman for the German Press Agency on Thursday. For weeks, a series of burglaries that began in early September had kept the police busy in the Ruhr area city.
After extensive investigations, witnesses and trace evaluations, evidence of a group of minors accumulated. Last Friday (October 21st) an observation of suspects was successful. Some perpetrators were caught in the act of breaking into a building that is also used by newspapers in the Ruhr area. Up to 30 burglaries are attributed to the group of children - the youngest was just nine years old - and the teenager. They would have met regularly in different compositions on a soccer field and then more or less "out of boredom" started the not very professional raids, destruction and devastation.
While the underage children go unpunished, at least before the law, the youth could even face imprisonment. If the acts were classified as "gang theft" and not as acts of an individual, it could lead to a year in prison, explained the police spokesman.
Since the beginning of September, "an extreme increase" in burglaries in schools and kindergartens had been observed in Oberhausen. It was not only about theft, but also about pure vandalism. More than 25 crimes had already been registered by mid-October. According to police estimates, the total property damage is in the six-figure range: doors and lockers were broken open and torn out, furniture and walls were smeared and destroyed, classrooms, gymnasiums and toilets were devastated. "Some of it was "completely senseless destruction," the spokesman said.
