Overview
- Investigators published surveillance images and appealed for information identifying two men linked to the December 4 robbery at a Shell station on Grenoblestraße in Essen-Steele.
- Two masked attackers threatened a 59-year-old employee with a pistol and a knife and demanded she open the cash register and the safe.
- Cartridge casings recovered at the scene indicate the firearm was likely a blank or starting pistol that police say was fired three times during the crime.
- The perpetrators took cash from the register, failed to access the safe, grabbed the employee’s handbag and fled on foot as a rapid police search found no suspects.
- Both suspects are described as slim, about 20–24 years old and 1.75–1.80 m tall; one wore a white Nike top and carried an olive backpack, the other wore black with red-striped pants and has a distinctive mole on the middle shoulder strap; both reportedly spoke broken German, and tipsters are asked to call 0201/829-0 or email hinweise.essen@polizei.nrw.de, without approaching the men.