Calling in Sick for the “Böhse Onkelz” – Employee Skips Work for Party Weekend at the Hockenheimring

At the beginning of the week, Kurtz Investigations Berlin received a call from the owner of a medium-sized Berlin company. One of his employees had requested leave for the coming Thursday, Friday and Monday and, after the employer had declined the request, reported sick. Normally the company had no problem granting employees leave for important appointments, but this request had simply come too late to find a replacement for a scheduled tour (it was a logistics company). The tour would therefore have had to be cancelled and the entrepreneur would have lost revenue had he granted the leave. Because the coincidence between the rejected holiday request and the sudden illness appeared suspicious to the employer, and because similar incidents with this employee had already occurred several times, he commissioned the detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Berlin to investigate the employee.

Busy Target Person Runs Numerous Errands During the Surveillance by Detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Berlin

At midday on Monday, the target person of our corporate investigators from Berlin had requested leave, received the rejection in the afternoon after the end of the tour, left the company premises in good health and informed the employer by telephone on Tuesday morning that he had been signed off sick for the next six calendar days. On Wednesday morning, our Berlin private investigators began the surveillance at the employee’s residence.

 

After an inconspicuous visit to the bakery and a return to the flat, the target person (TP) entered his vehicle at around 09:30 and over the course of the day drove to various supermarkets, shops for leisure and camping equipment and a DIY store – all naturally observed by the investigators of Kurtz Investigations Berlin. In most cases the TP left the respective shop with various items or well-filled shopping trolleys. These observations suggested an interesting development of the case, and indeed in the late afternoon, after completing all purchases, the TP drove to a garage complex and loaded all the purchased items into a camper van. Afterwards the TP returned to his flat.

 

As no further events had been observed by 20:00, the two deployed detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Berlin ended the surveillance and were relieved by another colleague for the night shift. It is quite unusual to conduct surveillance at night during investigations concerning suspected abuse of sick leave, but due to the issue involving the camper van the operations management of Kurtz Investigations Berlin wanted to be on the safe side. The two withdrawn detectives were placed on standby.

Meeting at Dawn, Departure with a Caravan

The decision by the operations management proved to be a stroke of luck for the clients of Kurtz Detective Agency Berlin, because at dawn – even before the originally scheduled start of surveillance – the TP left his flat and drove to the garage complex, where four additional persons with large amounts of luggage, food and drinks were already waiting. Everything was loaded together into the motorhome. Meanwhile our observer informed the two other detectives that they urgently needed to support him. However, the TP and the four unknown persons (UP) departed only a few minutes later before the colleagues could relieve our single vehicle observer.

 

The journey led straight past Potsdam onto the A9 motorway heading south. The two requested detectives followed at maximum speed, but due to the unfavourable traffic conditions on that day they rarely had the opportunity to drive significantly faster than the camper van they were trying to catch up with. Only at a motorway service area near Münchberg in Upper Franconia did the TP and the UP make their first stop, allowing the pursuing detectives from Berlin finally to catch up and relieve their exhausted colleague. At that point he had already been observing for more than 13 hours, ten of which had passed completely without incident. From Münchberg he then began his return journey home while the newly arrived observers took over.

Journey Ends at the Hockenheimring, Loss of Visual Contact

Our corporate detectives from Kurtz Detective Agency Berlin then followed the TP and the UP to the Hockenheimring near Mannheim, where the band “Böhse Onkelz” was performing two comeback concerts on each of the two weekends, with an estimated total of 300,000 tickets sold. Upon arriving at the site, the TP’s motorhome drove onto the campsite, which our detectives from Berlin could not immediately follow because they had neither a concert ticket nor a camping ticket. A few minutes later, the operations centre of Kurtz Investigations Berlin researched that according to the organiser tickets should still be available at the sales points on site for that weekend and that access to the campsite was only possible with a concert ticket. Fortunately, there were still remaining tickets available at the box office that day, but by the time these had been obtained our observers had already long lost visual contact with the TP.

Searching for a Needle in a Haystack: Finding a Specific Caravan on a Campsite

The deployed detectives of Kurtz Detective Agency Berlin had no choice but to search the campsite for the TP’s vehicle after gaining access to the camping area. By the time the vehicle was finally located it was already getting dark and the camper van was unoccupied. At least our investigators managed to secure a small campsite with visual contact to the target vehicle. The problem: they had no tents with them. Fortunately a tent was quickly obtained, as various vendors had positioned themselves in the immediate vicinity of the venue. One detective set up the tent while the other observed the camper van.

 

Only at around 01:00 did the TP and the UP return, heavily intoxicated, enjoy one more beer each in front of the bus with considerable noise and then went to sleep, partly in tents and partly in the vehicle. Since the tent had been erected, the surveillance had been conducted in shifts: one corporate investigator observed while the other attempted – largely unsuccessfully due to the noise – to sleep.

Anyone Who Is Sick and Celebrates Acts Contrary to Recovery.

The next day (Friday) the travel group around the supposedly sick employee slowly came to life around 11:00. During the course of the day they spent almost the entire time sitting, drinking, apparently consuming marijuana judging by the smell, grilling and eating. The TP also repeatedly used various fences to relieve himself and loudly sang songs by “Böhse Onkelz” again and again – often accompanied by music from a playback device they had brought with them, though sometimes without it. In the early evening the group went for a walk and repeatedly joined other campers for short periods to consume further soft drugs. The TP did not attend the concert that evening, which meant the ticket purchased by our Berlin detectives expired unused.

Jumping, Dancing and Pushing at the Concert

Anticipating this possibility, our private investigators from Berlin had purchased one ticket each for Friday and Saturday and would therefore have been able to follow the TP onto the concert grounds if he had decided to attend on Saturday instead. On this day the visibly exhausted group took things somewhat more quietly. Everyone appeared a little worn out, slept a great deal and drank significantly less.

 

Two hours before the official start of the concert, the TP and the UP proceeded to the entrance and pushed themselves quite far forward in the queues of fans, so that our investigator, who also had entry with the remaining concert ticket, could follow only with difficulty. During the band’s show the TP proved extremely lively, dancing, jumping and bumping into other concert visitors in a kind of group choreography, which these participants apparently welcomed and enthusiastically returned. No physical limitations could be observed in the TP whatsoever.

 

For reasons of personal safety in the very physical environment among the concert visitors, our corporate investigator from Berlin withdrew to the rear rows and left the concert early in order to intercept the TP at the exit. Although the TP was missed there due to the enormous crowds returning to the campsite, the detective who had remained at the tent was ultimately able to observe the TP again at the camper van. Another good two hours of singing loudly and excessive drinking followed before the group finally went to sleep.

Summary Dismissal Based on the Court-Admissible Evidence Collected by Our Berlin Detectives

On Sunday the group finally began the return journey to Berlin, where the TP and our investigators arrived in the early evening. The surveillance was then terminated, as the evidence collected up to that point was already overwhelming and further observation was no longer necessary to achieve the objective of the assignment. The fact that the TP had requested leave for the following Monday could likely be explained by the intention to use that day to sober up (during the return journey one of the UP drove the entire time) and recover.

 

On the next working day the employee pretending to be ill was greeted with summary dismissal upon entering the workplace. The “Onkelz” concert therefore proved to be a very costly pleasure, because apart from the costs of the weekend the employer and the target person also agreed that the employee who had fraudulently called in sick would reimburse the detective costs. At least he was thus able to avoid another potentially expensive court case.

Kurtz Detective Agency Berlin

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