Crime Writer in Court for Bank Robbery Plotted out in Novel

A strange case of Life Imitating Art

An unnamed German wordsmith is to appear in court charged with carrying out a bank robbery that was exactly the same as the plot of one of his novels. We know that many authors struggle financially, but this one took desperate measures, breaking into a branch of Sparkasse bank in his hometown of Leipzig, East Germany, living out the life of his fictional protagonist blow by blow.

The author intends on pleading guilty in the case, to be heard during August after admitting donning a mask and telling at customers to lie on the floor while threatening staff. Due to a safety mechanism the safe took 20 minutes to open, and it was this that thwarted his efforts, with the police catching him a short time after he left the bank.

The difference between him and his fictional protagonist was that his character escaped on a bike, and had prepared by hiding some clothes behind an oak tree, but even his protagonist was caught when police found the bike and his rucksack with his DNA on it.

It seems we do much better writing about bank robberies than committing one, and we’d suggest this author thinks very carefully about his next crime plot, because police may be watching very closely!

I’m filing this under ‘Life imitating art’ and ‘Weird stories I’ve read this week’.