Thomas Wolf (born in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

), also known under the alias of David van Dyk (or David van Dyke), is a German

criminal In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definiti ...

and was, until capture in May 2009, one of the most wanted fugitives in Germany for nine years.

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...

28 May 2009 21:54
Auf der Reeperbahn abends um halb sieben
by Von J. Schneider

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29 May 2009 10:22 CET
Germany's most-wanted fugitive arrested in Hamburg
/ref>

Escape

Having been repeatedly convicted (among other crimes, of

bank robbery Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank Branch (banking), branch or Bank teller, tel ...

) and thus, oscillating between freedom and imprisonment, Wolf neglected to return to prison at the scheduled time after the 1999 Christmas release. On 20 April 2000, he was seen robbing a Commerzbank office in Altona, a district of

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, netting about half a million EUR. Wolf's whereabouts were not known by the police for the next nine years except for numerous crimes associated with him, most of them committed in Germany but some also in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Kidnapping

According to police, on 27 March 2009 Wolf kidnapped the wife of a banker in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

. He asked for a ransom of 1.8 million EUR, which the banker paid. Despite police surveillance, Wolf managed to leave with the money. He was, however, identified by testimony of the kidnapped wife, which led to reinvigoration of the hunt on him.

New hunt and capture

After the kidnapping, police set a bounty of 40 000 EUR (and later, 100 000 EUR) for information leading to arrest of Wolf. Despite the bounty, Wolf's capture took three months. Wolf was found when he announced for a date on 16 May 2009 in '' Hamburger Abendblatt''. Reportedly, he made strange demands to the woman who answered — in particular, he requested that she rent a room for him in her name and open a bank account for him in her name — which made her suspicious and led her to report the encounter to police. Subsequently, police located Wolf's cellphone, whose number he had given to his date, and arrested him on the Reeperbahn, after his departure from Lehmitz, a well-known pub.

References

German bank robbers Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century German criminals Criminals from North Rhine-Westphalia People from Düsseldorf {{Germany-crime-bio-stub