Police catch three pickpocketing suspects in central Vienna

Three young people suspected of carrying out several pickpocketing thefts near Stephansplatz in central Vienna were caught on Friday, ORF reported. Police said they found the suspects as they were bothering an older woman. Their identities have not been fully established.

Officers in plain clothes responded after several thefts were reported within minutes around St Stephen’s Cathedral. The three suspects could not show identification and all said they were 11 years old.

A doctor called in by police assessed one of the female suspects as at least 15. She said she was an Italian national. An international inquiry indicated with a high degree of probability that the other woman was a 19-year-old Croatian citizen, police spokeswoman Irina Steirer said.

The boy said he was an 11-year-old Italian whose parents or guardians were not in Austria, and that he had been in Vienna for three days. He apparently does not speak Italian. Police said the suspects’ identities remained unresolved.

Video footage linked the three to several thefts. An officer also recognised the boy, who is suspected of taking part in an attempted theft at a clothing shop earlier that day. No suspected stolen goods were found, leading police to suspect there may have been accomplices or people directing the group. Further investigations are under way.

The two young women were provisionally arrested. The boy was handed over to MA 11, Vienna’s child and youth welfare service.