The Gladbeck Incident, minute by minute

Submit a story idea: https://brewsolves.com/ Merch: https://shop.brewsolves.com/ Become a member: https://www.stacked.com/brew/ On August 16, 1988, at approximately 7:45 AM, the staff of the Deutsche Bank branch in Gladbeck, West Germany were just preparing their workstations and enjoying the quiet of the morning as they got ready to open for the day. The uneventful Tuesday morning in the small industrial town’s Rentfort-Nord business center where the bank was situated, soon turned into a nightmare when something unexpected happened. Two men had disembarked from a red Honda motorcycle, making a loud racket as they forced their way through a window into the bank’s lobby. But this story is not about a bank heist. It is about the chaos that came after. Due to some of the most belligerent police incompetence in modern history, authorities would allow these two men to escape and go on a 40-hour international rampage of destruction resulting in deadly high speed car chases, shootouts, the hijacking of a 32 passenger filled bus, and the deaths of innocent children. All of which was entirely preventable. But it wasn’t just the police who were to blame. News crews, who were willing to do anything to get a good story, would actively assist the murderers in evading capture to prolong the catastrophe, causing these hours to be forever known as the darkest in journalism history. Let’s get into it. Sources: https://rentry.co/ai9zcke3