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By Wednesday this week at the latest, the Baden-Württemberg police must have realized that this matter could escalate. That this is not a single act, but possibly a series, a series of explosive attacks on German food companies.
The alarm went off in Neckarsulm, a city of 25,000 that borders Heilbronn and is best known to two large employers: carmaker Audi and the Schwarz Group, the food company that runs the two brands Kaufland and Lidl. Right there, in an administrative building of the Lidl company, there was an explosion on Wednesday afternoon around 2:50 pm Three employees were injured, one moderately serious, two minor, and it leaked quickly; This is not an accident in the company, but an attack. There was talk of a letter or a bomb package. The explosive device went off when one of the post office employees opened the shipment.
It was almost exactly the same a little over 24 hours earlier in Eppelheim, near Heidelberg, almost 70 kilometers from Neckarsulm. This is where Wild-Werke, an international scent manufacturer supplying the Capri-Sonne brand, is based. There, too, an employee opened a mail that contained explosive material. There was a deflagration and the employee suffered an explosion.
And then on Thursday, a third message. Another package of explosives was discovered at Munich airport and harmless, aimed at the baby products manufacturer Hipp in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm.
Three companies, three bombings, two of which were completed. The seriousness with which the police took this series can be seen in the fact that they had 100 officers from various departments on the case.
The success of the search came surprisingly quickly. On Saturday, the Baden-Württemberg State Criminal Police Office and the Heidelberg prosecutor, where the investigations had met, reported that a man had been arrested. 66 year old retiree from Ulm area with no criminal record.
All three shipments of explosives were posted in Ulm.
When he was arrested on Friday night, he did not resist. Police followed his trail by tracing the mail. All three were sent to a post office in Ulm at the same time, each with a different fictitious address.
But what is the reason for the attacks? Is there blackmail behind this? There was no information on this on Saturday. So far, the suspect has been silent on the allegations, it was said, and nothing is known of a ransom note. Evidence that investigators found in the man’s apartment is still being investigated.
Police announced just one more detail Saturday, at least reassuring: They consider it unlikely that the man sent more letters with explosives.
