Arno Funke
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Arno Funke (born 14 March 1950), alias Dagobert, is a reformed German
extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
ist, now an author.


Life

An automotive and sign painter by trade, Funke was later medically examined at trial and said to have minor brain damage likely from the fumes from his workspace. He began his criminal career in 1988 when he found himself needing a small amount of money to kickstart a new career as a sausage-vendor on Germany's streets.


Extortions

Funke planted a small bomb in a
KaDeWe The Kaufhaus des Westens (), abbreviated to KaDeWe, is a department store in Berlin, Germany. With over of retail space and more than 380,000 articles available, it is the second-largest department store in Europe after Harrods in London. It att ...
department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...
in West
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,Dagobert spielt Katz und Maus mit den Medien
, ''
Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter Allg ...
'', 15 August 2000
and phoned from East Berlin. At the time, East Berlin's infrastructure and police services were often not integrated with their Western equivalents. He successfully extorted 500,000 DM. Having spent the money, Funke returned to extortion in 1992. This time he chose
Karstadt Karstadt Warenhaus GmbH was a German department store chain whose headquarters were in Essen. Until 30 September 2010 the company was a subsidiary of Arcandor AG (which was known until 30 June 2007 as KarstadtQuelle AG) and was responsible wi ...
, Germany's largest department store. On 13 June, a bomb detonated in a shop in
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
. Funke set up a complex money transfer scheme, with a box attached magnetically to a train. In August, he escaped with the box, but it contained only a few hundred marks, otherwise being filled with scraps of paper. He continued to target Karstadt stores through 1993 and 1994, but did not obtain any further money. One of his bombs did $4.5 million in damage in the sporting section of Karstadt in
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
. For six years, the extortionist who had started calling himself ''Dagobert'' after the German name for
Scrooge McDuck Scrooge McDuck is a cartoon character created in 1947 by Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company. Appearing in Disney comics, Scrooge is a Scottish-American anthropomorphic Pekin duck. Like his nephew Donald Duck, he has a yellow-orange bil ...
, baffled police and entertained the general public. Due to his careful precision and effort to eliminate any chance of anybody being hurt in his attacks, he was seen as a harmless prankster by many, and "I am Dagobert" T-shirt sales were brisk at kiosks throughout the city. When police released a tape of his voice in an attempt to trace him, a music group mixed it into a
rap Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
song dedicated to "Dagobert", during his later trial he would explain that he wanted to be like the Disney character and "swim in money". To collect his blackmail payments, he would devise intricate mechanical devices that would speed along railroad tracks, have false bottoms and he continued to elude detection, though he barely eluded capture at the last minute several times, including once when a pursuing detective slipped on wet leaves and fell.


End of criminal career

He was finally caught on 22 April 1994, and sentenced to 7 years and 9 months imprisonment; the sentence was later increased to 9 years imprisonment on appeal. It was estimated that the police had spent nearly $20 million on his pursuit. He was released on parole after serving 6 years and 4 months on 15 August 2000. The expected media frenzy caused authorities to actually release him a day early to avoid the crowds.


Life afterwards

He wrote a book in prison about his exploits and has held a job since 1998 as a cartoonist at a publishing house under a work-release program. In 2004 a British television studio created a special entitled '' The Heist'' which saw Funke teamed with
Peter Scott Sir Peter Markham Scott, (14 September 1909 – 29 August 1989) was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer, broadcaster and sportsman. The only child of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott, he took an interest in ...
, Mathew Bevan, Joey Pyle and Terry Smith (All celebrated criminals in different fields of expertise) in an attempt to "steal" a painting from the
London Art Fair The London Art Fair (LAF) is an annual contemporary art fair held at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London. Overview The fair displays modern British and contemporary art, from the early 20th century onwards, presented by galleries ...
, steal a
TVR Sagaris The TVR Sagaris is a sports car designed and built by the British manufacturer TVR in their factory in Blackpool, Lancashire. Overview The Sagaris made its debut at the MPH03 Auto Show in 2003. The pre-production model was then shown at the ...
prototype and hold hostage a prize-winning racehorse whilst attempting to extort a ransom of the horse owner. In 2013 he is in the TV "Jungle Camp", the German version of '' I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here!''


Books

* ''Mein Leben als Dagobert. Die Bekenntnisse des Kaufhauserpressers'', Ch. Links, Berlin 1998,


Documentations

* Sven Ihden, Roland May: ''Die großen Kriminalfälle: „Dagobert“ – Der Kaufhauserpresser''. In: ''
Das Erste Das Erste (; "The First") is the flagship national television channel of the ARD association of public broadcasting corporations in Germany. ''Das Erste'' is jointly operated by the nine regional public broadcasting corporations that are member ...
,'' SWR. 8. October 2007. * ''Räuber und Gendarm – der Fall „Dagobert“'', In: '' Spiegel Geschichte''. 2012. * Tim Evers: ''Jagd auf Dagobert'' in ARD-Mediathek, 2022. *


Notes


References

*''Die Entenjagd Dagobert.'' in: ''der kriminalist'', Nr. 2, 3, 5, 2004, ISSN 0722-3501 *''"Dagobert" – Der Kaufhauserpresser'', in "
Die großen Kriminalfälle ''Die großen Kriminalfälle'' ("The Great Criminal Cases") is a German documentary television Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documenta ...
" SWR 2007
"The Strange Story of Dagobert, the ''DuckTales'' Bandit: In the nineties, a frustrated artist in Berlin went on a crime spree—building bombs, extorting high-end stores, and styling his persona after Scrooge McDuck. He soon became a German folk hero."
{{DEFAULTSORT:Funke, Arno 1950 births Living people Bombers (people) German extortionists Ich bin ein Star – Holt mich hier raus! participants