Overview
- Hesse staged a statewide 'Augen auf, Tasche zu' action day with more than 100 information stands and about 120 trained local protection officers advising shoppers on common theft tricks and simple precautions.
- Officials highlighted older customers as frequent targets and urged people to keep valuables close to the body and bags closed, with police distributing brochures at stores and markets.
- Saxony-Anhalt’s interior ministry warned that crowded Christmas markets and shopping streets attract pickpockets during the pre-Christmas period.
- Recorded pickpocketing has declined: Saxony-Anhalt logged 619 cases in 2024 versus 1,037 in 2023, and Hesse reported a drop from 5,400 to 4,400 cases for January through October year on year.
- Saxony-Anhalt lawmakers criticized the ministry’s emphasis on pickpockets at the Magdeburg market as the city and Weihnachtsmarkt GmbH shoulder roughly €500,000 for anti-terror barriers, private security and technology, with police and the ministry saying market counter-terror duties are not their remit.