A small parking ticket, a very expensive Mercedes SUV and a lot of trouble: up to 100 men and women gathered in Essen on Saturday, and finally the police temporarily arrested three men.
What was going on?
Two employees of the public order office (26, 50) were checking parked cars at 5.30 pm. When they wanted to ticket the black Mercedes ( worth 100,000 euros), they were threatened by the three occupants, the police reported.
The women barricaded themselves in the patrol car, one of the opponents made their car rock, another quickly mounted the licence plate (registration: Switzerland) from the off-road vehicle. When the police arrived, the trio and the car had disappeared.
One and a half hours later, however, one of the meter maids recognised one of the perpetrators (29) – in a crowd of people who cared neither about keeping their distance nor about wearing face masks.
The German-Moroccan, who is known to the police officers because of similar deployments and allegedly lives in Switzerland in the meantime, was arrested by police officers who were called in.
Then the situation escalated completely!
Police spokeswoman Sylvia Czapiewski (44): “Several people then joined forces and approached the officers in a threatening manner, demanding that they let go of the 29-year-old. A 40-year-old finally attacked the police officer who was detaining the 29-year-old German-Moroccan and tore him away from him, allowing him to flee in the commotion.”
When more police cars approached, many of those present fled. The 40-year-old man of Lebanese origin was temporarily arrested, as was a man (25) of Turkish origin. A 20-year-old German who had filmed the arrest was also taken to the police station.
The three men and the man who escaped in a Mercedes are now facing charges for assaulting police officers, resisting arrest, coercion and freeing a prisoner. A manhunt is on for the 29-year-old.