Overview

• Police say the suspect targeted multiple hardware stores over the weekend, escalating from deceptive thefts to violence.
• On Friday in Fürth, he allegedly left with unpaid goods and sprayed a 75-year-old employee who confronted him.
• On Saturday in Erlangen, staff observed thefts on surveillance video in the morning before the suspect returned in the afternoon.
• An employee was sprayed in the face, then struck, kicked, and bitten before staff and customers restrained the suspect.
• Officers from Polizeiinspektion Erlangen-Stadt arrested him at the scene, found suspected stolen items in his vehicle, and the public prosecutor filed for pretrial detention.