Third blaze in three weeks Another car burnt out near the Thomas chapel

PLITTERSDORF · In the early hours of Monday morning, a car parked near the Thomas chapel was burnt out - it’s the third similar case in three weeks. The crimes awaken memories of a series of fires in 2012.

Only the bare wheel rims are left of what were the front tyres, around the car there’s extinguishing foam everywhere: Police and fire brigade were called to a burning car early on Monday morning. The car was parked at the Thomas chapel, on the corner of Kennedyallee and Kolumbusring. The black Nissan X-Trail was just three years old, as the owner Ehrenbrief Schindler told the GA in an interview. He said he heard that burning cars seem not to be a once-off case.

The police did check this detail and found other cases indeed: On September 8 at 4.10am, a Fiat burnt out at the Herbert-Wehner-Platz (Rheinaue), on September 12 it was 4.15am when a Ford went up in flames on the Ludwig-Erhard-Allee near the Südbrücke.

All this stirs memories of 2012 when 21 vehicles were set on fire between April and May. It has never been reported by the police whether a culprit was caught. These old cases will be checked again by the police to see if there are possible connections with the recent car fires - despite this the cause of the Nissan fire still needs to be found, according to the officers.

Schindler is currently on holidays with his wife at the lake Garda. „We got a message from a neighbour that our car was burnt out“, the Plittersdorf man said. The children at home had not noticed anything, they didn’t hear the police calling on the phone during the night.

According to the police the incident happened on Monday morning at 1.40am. „The vehicle burnt out completely“, said police spokesperson Simon Rott. He estimates the damage to be about 20,000 Euro.

Crimes were not single-cases

„It is awful. For me this means a paper war“, said Schindler in regard to the insurance case. He thinks that he will be paying more in the long run. Because the corner is usually quite lonely, he should have parked the car at the main road, said the Plittersdorf man.

The series of fires in 2012 began on April 16, when the first car burnt out at the Kanalstraße, two hours later there was a car fire at the Turmstraße. The incidents continued on April 18 and 21: Once it was also a motorcycle that burnt out. Then it got quieter, until May 6 when two cars were set on fire. Up until May 17, every day or every other day fires were recorded without any culprit being found. The final times the firebug tampered with cars, it was a Mazda at the Gotenstraße and a Renault Twingo at the Promenadenweg. The police suspected arson and a connection between all the incidents.

The cases in Bad Godesberg back then were clearly not once-off. Every year cases of arson and vandalism happen all over North Rhine-Westphalia. In Bonn, cars often get scratched with a sharp object along the side of the bodywork. Problem: There are seldom witnesses as night - especially not in dark corners.

Also this time the police is dependent on help from the citizens and asks for information if anybody noticed anything near the scenes in Plittersdorf. The police can be contacted at 0228/150.

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