Zonk! Pow! Nosh! The Crusader Caper Pits Goodies vs. Evil

Thieves dressed as superheroes make off with $2,000 worth of goodies from a Hamburg store April 28. (Frankfurter Rundschau)

Hamburg is home to an estimated 1,500 left-wing extremists, of which about 470 have a track record of promoting violence, according to Manfred Murck, a German intelligence official and deputy director of the state agency responsible for monitoring domestic extremist groups.

Investigators believe only 15 to 20 people are actively involved in Hamburg for Free, Murck says, and the group is considered more of a nuisance than a danger. Their flair for publicity is undeniable.

"I think they do have more sympathy because they have more of a Robin Hood type of image, or at least they try to have this kind of image," Murck says. "It's something between political action and violence, and a game."

Carsten Sievers, general manager of the Fresh Paradise grocery, is dubious about all the Robin Hood talk and even more doubtful that any of his store's delicacies gave pleasure to the palates of Hamburg's underclass.

"How many poor people will really enjoy a bottle of champagne or a high-value cheese?" he asks. "I think the object was just to get in the newspapers and get publicity for their ideas. To help the poor people, there is a right way and a wrong way. You cannot use the voice of Robin Hood to promote yourself."

In reality, he says, the caper was much more low-key than the gang's braggadocio suggested. A conspirator in street clothes performed a reconnaissance mission to the store ahead of time, Sievers says, and stuffed several hand-held shopping baskets with groceries. The baskets were placed unnoticed on the floor near the store's front entrance. When the costumed performers arrived on the scene, they ducked in for only an instant to snatch the baskets and flee without a word. More like cowardly crooks than superheroes, Sievers sniffs.

"That was it. That was all we saw," he says. "One of our girls tried to follow them, but she lost them and they got away."

Also lost in the myth surrounding the crime, Sievers adds, is a longtime store policy:

Twice a week, employees box up dated organic produce and other perishables that have been passed over and donate them to a local social-services agency to feed the hungry and the poor.