Phone scammers repeatedly steal money from their victims’ pockets. But the Public Prosecution Service is particularly concerned about the case of an 88-year-old Carinthian. Not only because it concerns a total of 750,000 euros in gold coins, but because the suspected perpetrator was also identified thanks to a DNA hit. Only there is still no trace of its prey.
On February 9, the former entrepreneur from Carinthia received a phone call. On the other end of the line appeared to be his desperate son, who needed tens of thousands of euros for bail after a fatal car accident. To help his crying child out of trouble, the 88-year-old hurried to the bank, where he took more than 400 gold coins from the Vienna Philharmonic, worth a total of 750,000 euros, from his safe. The man would have continued to call his alleged son. When he got home, he handed over the 400 coins to what he thought was a police officer.
Perpetrator arrested via DNA hits
A few hours later, after a personal conversation with his son, it dawned on the 88-year-old that he had been the victim of a scam. Initially, no trace of the perpetrator was found. But thanks to modern DNA analyzes and traces on the doorbell at the victim’s home, a suspect has now been identified. It involves a 23-year-old Polish national who years ago had used the same scam to scam people in Germany. He will be transferred to Klagenfurt prison on Friday.
But there is no trace of the prey. According to the suspect’s lawyer, a large, professional group of perpetrators was behind it, so that his client had nothing to do with the gold coins. The Public Prosecution Service is now handling the case.
Source: Krone
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