Correction: The Herborn Robbery Story Was a Confabulation

Yesterday we posted a translated article about a teenager who was robbed of her cell phone on the platform of the railway station in Herborn.

It has since emerged that her story was a hoax, and the original publisher (FOCUS.de) was taken in by it. In the interest of correcting the record, the article below explains what happened. There is no information regarding the girl’s motive, but in my opinion the most likely explanation is that she lost her phone somehow, and needed a solid cover story to present to her parents.

Many thanks to Egri Nök for translating this piece from Mittelhessen.de:

Schoolgirl feigns robbery at the train station

POLICE: 14-year-old enmeshes herself in contradictions at her interrogation and then refuses further testimony

HERBORN — The 14-year-old schoolgirl who, according to her own statement, was robbed on Monday at the Herborn train station by two men apparently made the story up. Neither the two perpetrators, nor the sought witness existed.

The girl stated that two men in their mid-twenties had assaulted her on Monday at around 3:40pm on platform 2. These two, whom she assessed to be refugees or asylum seekers from Syria or Afghanistan, robbed the €30 she had withdrawn shortly before from a teller machine, and her bank card.

“As matters stand, the robbery reported by a 14-year-old, on platform 2 at the train station Herborn, did not happen. Criminal police are now investigating the schoolgirl for feigning a crime”, the police press release announces.

Inconsistencies at the interrogation

Inconsistencies regarding the stolen money and contradictory statements regarding the timing of the deed first raised doubts in investigators’ minds regarding the robbery described by the schoolgirl. Confronted with these facts, the girl decided not to make any statements to the police anymore. As matters stand, police assume that the robbery on Monday afternoon at the train station Herborn did not happen.

The investigators have not learned the motive of feigning the robbery, as the 14-year-old from the municipality of Siegbach ceased her cooperation with the police after the expressed their doubts.

The inference at this point is that the search for a witness who, according to the first statement by the “victim”, witnessed the robbery from platform 1, and chased the pair of “perpetrators”, is obsolete.

3 thoughts on “Correction: The Herborn Robbery Story Was a Confabulation

  1. I appreciate that Baron issued this retraction of a bogus story, giving it equal prominence with the original (not buried at the bottom of page 37).

    • Yes, that’s our policy: prominent retraction and correction. I’m told that FOCUS.de simply pulled the original, hoping no one would notice.

  2. Yes, the story is an “hoax”. That’s surely what Mama Merkel wants to hear and is one non-crime that the police no longer have to investigate.

    Everyone wins, except for our schoolgirl who is not going to get her phone back.

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