Thomas Wolf (born in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

), 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 or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...

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 daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat. History ...

28 May 2009 21:54
Auf der Reeperbahn abends um halb sieben
by Von J. Schneider The Local 29 May 2009 10:22 CET
Germany's most-wanted fugitive arrested in Hamburg
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Escape

Having been repeatedly convicted (among other crimes, of bank robbery) 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 Commerzbank AG () is a major German bank operating as a universal bank, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main. In the 2019 financial year, the bank was the second largest in Germany by the total value of its balance sheet. Founded in 1870 in Hambur ...

office in Altona, a district of

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, netting about half a million

EUR The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . Th ...

. 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, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Kidnapping

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

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

. 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 A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

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