Highway police find suspected energy attacker through trampled grass

It was just some downtrodden grass on a dirt road. But that was the decisive lead for two young police officers that led to the arrest on Tuesday of the 48-year-old suspected energy attacker, who was being searched for throughout Europe.

Although they were not involved in the large-scale manhunt, the two highway police officers found the suspect's hiding place and arrested him. One of the two officers even turned on his body camera. The German Press Agency was able to view the recordings.

They show how the two young officers follow the trail in the grass and come across a man in the bushes around 200 meters from the path. A police officer draws his pistol and orders the man to lie on the ground. He offers no resistance and follows all instructions. Officials later reported that he immediately admitted that he was the person he was looking for. Then the handcuffs click.

For days, the attacks on the power grid in North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg and Saxony made headlines in the media and led to a large-scale police operation. The search now ends in a bush about 800 meters next to the Weisweiler power plant near Aachen.

The tent was well camouflaged in a bush

The bodycam recording pans to the side. You can see a tent that the 48-year-old has set up camouflaged in the bushes. The police had flown over the area with helicopters and drones - but due to the good camouflage, the tent could not be seen from the air, explains operations manager Frank Wißbaum when asked by the German Press Agency.

Although the 48-year-old had changed his appearance significantly, the police experts were quickly certain that he was actually the suspect who had been wanted for days.

“The two young colleagues did really well in terms of crime,” praises Wißbaum. Up to 1,700 emergency services were deployed for several days to search for the 48-year-old. Ultimately, it was the attentiveness and intuition of the two young officers that led to the arrest.

Manhunt was a puzzle game for the police

Wißbaum controlled the large-scale operation from Cologne police headquarters. He and his colleagues in the command staff repeatedly thought about what kind of perpetrator they were dealing with and how they could track him down.

A lot of things didn't add up, the operations manager says in retrospect: On the one hand, there were the crime scenes where the 48-year-old is said to have used self-made rockets to shoot thin wires over high-voltage lines in order to short-circuit them: On the one hand, they were in Brandenburg and Saxony and, on the other hand, in the Rhenish lignite mining area. There are more than 700 kilometers of route in between. This is rather untypical for a lone perpetrator.

In addition, there were letters of confession that the suspected perpetrator signed with his real name and sent to several media outlets. “Such an approach is very rare. It was clear to us: the perpetrator wanted to be recognized and found,” says Wißbaum. “But why?”

The trail led into the Hambacher Forest

The police officers developed perpetrator profiles and put forward various hypotheses about what the 48-year-old might plan to do next. One of these theories was that the man could join the climate protection scene in the Hambach Forest. In the forest that was occupied years ago by climate activists in the fight against brown coal-fired power generation, some people still live in tree houses today.

It was fitting that on Friday the officers found the conspicuous camping truck nearby that the 48-year-old had previously been driving. “He didn’t hide the car, he literally draped it there in the parking lot. “That showed us again: He wants to draw attention to himself,” reports Wißbaum.

That was the reason why several hundred people combed the Hambach Forest last weekend. But they didn't find the 48-year-old there.

Suddenly new launchers at the Weisweiler power plant

The next concrete indication of the man being sought came last Monday, when new launchers appeared at the Weisweiler power plant near Aachen - along with a third letter of confession. In it, the 48-year-old referred to several current developments, media reports and the investigations. “It was clear then: he read everything. He basically followed us every step of the way.”

Because the officials assumed that the 48-year-old was no longer using a motor, the search focused on the area around the Weisweiler power plant from Monday onwards.

On Monday evening around 9 p.m., while the police operation was ongoing, another rocket suddenly ignited. But it didn't reach the high-voltage line it was aimed at and didn't cause any damage, says Wißbaum.

Highway police make a crucial discovery

At dawn on Tuesday, several hundred people continued the search around the power plant. But the decisive observation was ultimately made by the two motorway police officers who were not actually assigned to the search for the 48-year-old. They discovered the trampled grass next to the A4, which led them to the suspect.

The operation was nerve-wracking for the police, emphasizes Cologne Police Chief Johannes Hermanns. Especially because there is one major operation after another in the cathedral city. “The people couldn’t get out of their boots until the next mission came along.”

In the end, from the police point of view, everything went very well, says operations manager Wißbaum. “My mission was: catch the perpetrator. We achieved this through an excellent team effort.”