Germany edition

Poker bandit turns himself in to police

Published: 17 Mar 10 07:21 CET
Updated: 17 Mar 10 09:50 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100317-25917.html

Eleven days after armed robbers snatched €242,000 from a poker game in a daring heist at Berlin’s Grand Hyatt Hotel, one of the culprits has turned himself into police.

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The authorities confirmed on Wednesday that the 21-year-old man turned up at a police station with his attorney earlier this week. He then admitted he was one of the four masked men who crashed the high-stakes poker game with handguns and machetes and made off with part of the prize pot.

The man has been held in custody since, but has reportedly so far refused to reveal the whereabouts of the stolen money.

According to the Berliner Morgenpost daily, he had given the address where at least some of his accomplices were staying. Armed police stormed the property Tuesday but found it empty.

However, it seems unlikely they will be at large much longer.

“We know exactly who we’re looking for. Sooner or later we’ll have the lot of them in our net,” one investigator told Bild.

The men had burst into the hotel at Potsdamer Platz at 2:15 pm on March 6, overrunning security guards and causing panic among the roughly 400 contestants in the European Poker Tour Tournament.

A security guard managed to disarm one of the men, grab a bag full of money and hold the man in a headlock, but he was freed by his accomplices. It was this man, widely seen in pictures over the past 11 days, that was arrested Tuesday, Bild reported.

The men then fled without their masks. They were filmed leaving and also left behind fingerprints and DNA evidence at the scene.

DDP/The Local (news@thelocal.de)

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