INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - LOOKING GLASS NEWS | |
'Robin Hood' gang rob gourmet stores in bid to feed Hamburg's poor |
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by Judy Guerilla News Network Entered into the database on Wednesday, May 10th, 2006 @ 10:33:35 MST |
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Summary: As they left the scene of the robbery, the gang, clad in masks, catsuits, dark
glasses and rubber masks, posed for a group photo outside the supermarket and
brandished their booty in front of the camera. The incident was the latest attack perpetrated by this Robin Hood-style gang
of so-called “Spontis”, whose activities have alarmed and baffledthe
Hamburg police and the city’s well-to-do. [Posted By Judy] __________________ By Tony Paterson They dress up in pink catsuits, have names like Spider
Mum and feel a social obligation to plunder as part of a campaign to help the
poor. Last week the well-heeled citizens of Hamburg’s Altona district got a
taste of their antics when 30 of them marched into the city’s luxury “Fresh
Paradise Goedeken” supermarket and walked out five minutes later with
€15,000 (£10,000) worth of stolen goods. The gang’s booty included magnums of Champagne at €99 a bottle,
filets of Japanese Kobe beef at €108 a kilogram, legs of venison, a salmon
and several boxes of Valrhona chocolate. Before leaving, gang members thrust a bouquet of flowers into the hands of
a shop assistant. Attached was a handwritten note which proclaimed: “Survival
in the city of millionaires would be impossible without us!” It was signed
by “Spider Mum”, “Santa Guevara” and “Multiflex”. Another note later released by the gang insisted that the haul had been distributed
to Hamburg’s needy, to the “social workers, cleaning ladies and
minimum-wage earners”. It added: “The places of wealth in this town
are as numerous as the opportunities to take it.” “It was a well-planned robbery,” Carsten Sievers, the store’s
manager, said on Friday last week. “Somebody had obviously been in the
shop before the main contingent arrived and had already filled up several shopping
trolleys.” Fourteen squad cars and a police helicopter scoured the Altona district for
more than an hour after the robbery, but failed to find the perpetrators. As they left the scene of the robbery, the gang, clad in masks, catsuits, dark
glasses and rubber masks, posed for a group photo outside the supermarket and
brandished their booty in front of the camera. The incident was the latest attack perpetrated by this Robin Hood-style gang
of so-called “Spontis”, whose activities have alarmed and baffledthe
Hamburg police and the city’s well-to-do. Yet the gang, which refers to
itself as “Hamburg for Free”, does not strike often. Its last attack
took place almost exactly a year ago, when 40 masked men and women stormed the
Süllberg restaurant in the city’s wealthy Blankenese district overlooking
the river Elbe. Diners were appalled as the gang snatched titbits from the plates in front
of them and started stuffing the stolen food into their mouths. Other gang members
brandished a huge knife and fork made out of silver foil and cardboard above
the diners’ heads. A placard declaring “The fat years are over”
was strung between pillars in the restaurant. Mr Franz, who has been trying to track down the “Hamburg for Free”
gang since the incident a year ago, said that investigators had merely established
that the group was probably made up of a mixture of students and anarchists. “We don’t know much about them. They are very political yet one
of their main motives is fun,” he said. “The problem is that they
strike so rarely and so professionally that they are a major job to catch.”
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