German police arrest Swiss head of armoured car robbery team

Felder was a senior employee with an armoured vehicle company Keystone Archive

The Swiss man heading an armoured vehicle team who vanished with SFr10 million was arrested on Monday in Germany.

Michael Felder, 38, from canton Aargau, was taken into custody in a hotel in Hamburg, three days after he made off with the loot. He is awaiting extradition.

A police spokesman in Hamburg said the arrest followed a tip-off from someone who recognised Felder from a photograph published in newspapers.

Felder had been drinking in a bar in the German city and paying with Swiss francs when he was spotted.

Felder offered no resistance when police arrested him in his hotel room on Monday afternoon and he confessed.

An Aargau police spokesman, Rudolf Woodtli, said a “large amount” of the money was recovered, but that it had yet to be counted. He added that Felder would possibly return to Switzerland in the coming days.

Felder, a senior employee with an armoured car company, was due to be making a delivery from Aargau to the Swiss National Bank in Zurich when he told the driver of the van to pull up in a car park because of a change of itinerary.

Felder then loaded the cash in two containers before jumping into a rental car stationed in the car park, where an accomplice had been waiting.

It was only when the chauffeur of the armoured car returned to the company headquarters that the crime was detected.

An unidentified man has also been detained by police in canton Zurich since Saturday on suspicion of involvement in the crime. It is not yet known how many other people were involved in the heist.

swissinfo