Ensuring employee security Kiosk reacts to series of robberies in Bonn
Kohlkaul · In the past weeks and months, robberies of shops have been increasing in Bonn and the surrounding area. One shop in Kohlkaul is particularly affected.
The small shop in Holzlar is directly opposite the voluntary fire brigade station. From the till behind the counter of the small kiosk, in which neighbours can buy all kinds of small items for their daily needs, hand in parcels or where they can even buy a bite to eat, Brigitte H. has a good view across to the fire fighters’ premises and the adjacent Kohlkauf village square.
However, it was already dark on the evening of 22 January when, instead of the usual customers, two masked men in black hoodies and jogging trousers charged into the shop. Holding guns, they demanded that H. give them all the cash and when the terrified woman did not immediately comply, they kicked the 56-year-old to the ground. “Before I even had a chance to take the money out of the till, the two men stormed from right and left round the counter and kicked me,” she remembers.
“The financial damage is one thing,” says the owner of the shop a few weeks after the incident. “For my employee, there is also the shock and of course the injury.” The latter was luckily not serious and H. seems to have a robust disposition. “This was the third time that we have been robbed here,” she explains, laughing bravely. And for her personally, this was the second attack. “A few years ago two men also came in here but armed with knives,” remembers the sales assistant. “I frightened them off with pepper spray.”
Supermarket robbers arrested
As his employees may possibly not always be so lucky in unfortunate situations, the owner has now taken action. The Holzar shop will now close at 5.30pm until further notice. “I can’t put the safety of my employees at risk,” says the businessman. It is yet to be seen how he will cope with the inevitable drop in sales. “We can possibly open for longer again in summer,” he hopes.
On Friday, police announced the arrest of a suspected supermarket robber who, together with three previously arrested men, is allegedly responsible for nine supermarket robberies in Bonn and the Rhine-Sieg district. These include the Edeka shops in Königswinter and Bonn-Hochkreuz, which became crime scenes about two weeks ago. The background to the attack on a further Edeka shop in Lengsdorf a week ago is still unclear.
As well as supermarkets, these perpetrators apparently also struck in petrol stations. However, businesses in other branches must also fear robberies. In Febraury, for example, an unknown person attempted to rob a hotel in Bad Godesberg.
(Original text: Leif Kubik, Peter Gassner. Translation:kc)
