The photo of a curious herd of cattle taken by police officers from the traffic service during speed checks was the snapshot of the year. The post reached over 86,000 people on the authority's own Facebook page and generated over 10,000 interactions and almost 3,500 reactions and comments. Even foreign media showed interest in using the snapshot.
Here is a selection of unusual, surprising, funny or unbelievable missions by the Bielefeld police in 2020:
Sackgasse multi-storey car park
A BMW driver failed in his attempt to evade a police check on 16/01/2020. Patrol officers intended to stop the 27-year-old BMW driver from Spenge after a traffic violation on Herforder Straße/Zimmerstraße at around 4.20 pm. The BMW driver continued his journey unperturbed, drove into the parking garage on Zimmerstraße and sped up the ramp at excessive speed. The officers pursued the fugitive over several floors of the parking garage. On one level of the parking garage, the 27-year-old stopped, got out of the BMW 3 Series and ran off. After a short pursuit on foot, the officers arrested him. The investigation revealed that the BMW driver, who was known to the police, had a warrant for his arrest. He was drunk and had consumed drugs. His BMW was seized.
Burglar leaves his ID card at the crime scene
On the evening of 21.02.2020, a man from Bielefeld broke into an office complex on Ummelner Straße. The burglar left his ID card at the scene along with his bicycle and jacket. At around 10.35 p.m., an employee of a security service noticed abandoned items such as a bicycle, a jacket and a bottle of spirits near the entrance to the office building. At the entrance door, the security employee noticed a broken window on the door and informed the police. The police officers who arrived searched the rooms and found several items of office furniture that had been broken into and stolen goods that the perpetrator had obviously prepared for removal. The burglar had also apparently emptied a bottle of champagne. Although the officers were unable to find the perpetrator at the scene of the crime, he made it easy for the police. He left his identity card behind in an office room. Criminal proceedings were initiated against the 30-year-old man from Bielefeld, who is known to the police.
Suspicious hiding
At around 3.55 a.m. on 29 March 2020, a man sought shelter in a front garden when he saw a patrol car, while his companion continued along Otto-Brenner-Straße in the direction of Heeper Straße. When the police officers looked in the front garden, they noticed the man in dark clothing hiding behind a tall fir tree. At the same time, the second man was approached and then checked together with the other man. After some evasive answers as to why they were in the front garden, the 22- and 23-year-old men from Bielefeld admitted that they intended to break into the nearby kiosk. They had arrived in a car that they had parked nearby. There were burglary tools in the car. This was seized by the police. In addition, the 22-year-old had been driving the car despite being under the influence of drugs. Both men were already known to the police for various burglaries and were charged with attempted burglary. The younger man also received a traffic citation for drug use.
Goose family on the motorway
On the morning of 17.04.2020, the police received a report of a dangerous spot on the A30 freeway near Löhne. A greylag goose was waddling excitedly in the left-hand lane in the direction of Osnabrück. Seven chicks followed her like a string of pearls. Apparently the mother goose was looking for a footpath across the highway, but was unable to cross the concrete barriers in the middle of the highway with her chicks and was also unable to find an exit on the other side, where there is a noise barrier. The police officers tried to guide the entire family through an open escape door in the noise barrier, but the mother goose suddenly took flight, flew away and did not return. The chicks left behind were now all caught one by one by the officers as they ran along the road and taken into custody. With the help of the fire station in Löhne, care was found for the little geese; the daughter of a hunter in Bad Oeynhausen took custody of the chicks.
Police officers are not fooled
In the early morning of 01.05.2020, a 60-year-old woman from Bielefeld contacted the police control center to report a vehicle theft - a Skoda Fabia - from Geislinger Straße. The police investigation revealed that the vehicle in question had been involved in an accident on Brockhagener Straße that same night. The driver fled the scene of the accident and parked the car in the parking lot of a supermarket. Here he removed the license plates and drove away. After the investigation, the officers informed the 60-year-old woman at her home address that the vehicle reported stolen had turned up again - but without any signs of having been broken into and with accident damage instead. They expressed their doubts about the 60-year-old's statements and confronted her about the hit-and-run. The woman from Bielefeld then opened one of the doors to her apartment. Her son was in the room, still in bed. She said to him: "Get up. It's all been blown. The police are already here too."
Animal curious eyewitnesses
The Bielefeld police traffic service carried out speed checks on Karl-Triebold-Straße on 29.05.2020, causing a stir in a herd of cattle. The flashing red light apparently not only aroused the interest of the drivers, but also that of the animals. The cattle stood close together at the fence to watch the spectacle. After all, 37 of the 438 vehicles checked were speeding. The cattle were probably amazed when an Audi Q7 drove past them at 107 km/h, even though drivers are only allowed to drive at 60 km/h here. The driver of a Mercedes Sprinter will also have caused quite a stir at 89 km/h. As both drivers had to reckon with driving bans, the cattle could hope for a little more peace and quiet in their beautiful pasture.
Police officers rescue chicks on the motorway
On 23.05.2020, a family of several ducks strayed onto the A33 near the Bielefeld freeway junction. Around midday, a concerned driver informed the police after spotting the animals on the road. Officers from the highway police were deployed and closed the road to protect the duck family from the vehicles speeding past. When the officers got out of the car, the mother duck flew away. Two officers carefully caught the eleven chicks and took them to an animal shelter in Bielefeld-Senne.
Air snakes lead police officers to burglars
On 03.07.2020, a perpetrator lost streamers while fleeing after a burglary in Oststraße. Thanks to a call from a witness, police officers were able to give chase. They followed the streamer trail and arrested the burglar for the time being. A 27-year-old resident of an apartment building on Oststraße was in the basement of the house at around 8.50 a.m. when he heard loud noises coming from the first floor. He went up to the hallway and met a man in the entrance area of the house who was carrying a laundry basket with various items out of the house. A short time later, the 27-year-old noticed that the door to a first floor apartment had been broken open, informed the police and described the suspicious stranger. The man's bandaged hand was conspicuous. In addition to the damage to the apartment door, the police also found small change and streamers lying around at the scene. While searching the surrounding area, the police saw streamers lying on the ground near another entrance to the house. The residents of the house tipped the officers off to an apartment where the suspect with the bandaged hand was supposed to be. In this apartment, the police officers actually arrested the 33-year-old burglar for the time being and seized the loot.
A getaway car is not waiting for accomplices
After an unknown person took a notebook from a household on 4 August 2020, a resident pursued the intruder to a getaway vehicle in the neighbourhood. A 43-year-old resident surprised a strange man in her apartment on Gütersloher Straße at around 2.10 pm. The man only said "toilet" twice in English and ran out of the house with a stolen notebook. The resident asked her 23-year-old son to take up the chase. The young man ran after the thief on Gütersloher Straße out of town as far as Hegelstraße. He saw the stranger approaching a black Audi station wagon with a Czech license plate, which was parked with two people on the side of the road. On recognizing the getaway car, the 23-year-old broke off the pursuit due to the large number of men. The witness saw the driver suddenly start the engine of the Audi and drive off - but without letting the thief get in. The thief ran after the car in the direction of Von-Möller-Straße. He was swearing in a foreign language. It is not known whether the two men in the car were able to collect their running accomplice.
31 years without a driver's license
On 04.09.2020, police officers from the traffic service at Rabenhof caught a car driver who had not had a driving license for 31 years. Officers from the traffic service checked an Opel Vectra on the Rabenhof road at around 9.20 am. The check revealed that the 57-year-old driver had already surrendered his driving license in 1989 due to a traffic offence and had not acquired a new one since then. The owner of the car was sitting in the passenger seat during the check. His Bulgarian driver's license was suspected of being forged, so it was seized. Further investigations also revealed that the 64-year-old had already come to the attention of the police with a forged Syrian driving license.
Backpack gets caught on vehicle and drags pedestrian
In an unusual traffic accident in the entrance to a school at Zionswald, a pedestrian suffered minor injuries on 01.10.2020. A 16-year-old from Bielefeld was in a group of people in the entrance area of the school grounds on Zionswald street at around 3.15 pm. He was standing at the entrance with a rucksack on his back. A 24-year-old man from Bielefeld, who was driving his flatbed truck along Zionswald Street, turned into the driveway. As the truck drove past the group, a strap from the 16-year-old's rucksack got caught in the hook of the flatbed truck for the safety net. This caused the vehicle to pull the pedestrian along a little until the rucksack strap broke. The 16-year-old suffered minor injuries.
Crossing the freeway on a scooter
On 15 November 2020, freeway police officers stopped a teenager who was driving his scooter on the A2 motorway in the direction of Hanover. A 17-year-old from Herford caught the attention of a highway patrol at around 4.40 a.m. because he was driving a Peugeot scooter with an insurance license plate attached. The officers had to drive at around 120 km/h so that they could catch up with the scooter. They stopped him in the area of the Vlotho West junction. During the check, it turned out that the 17-year-old had the insurance plate of a 25 km/h moped attached to the scooter. He did not have a driver's license, but only a moped test certificate. Due to the high speed, it was also suspected that the Peugeot scooter had been technically manipulated. Further violations were in the area of compulsory insurance and motor vehicle tax law. The officers took the youngster to his parents' house because he was unable to provide identification. The officers confiscated the scooter.