Cigarette vending machine in Cologne-Holweide blown up again – who is behind it?

Cigarette vending machine in Cologne-Holweide blown up again – who is behind it?

On the night of Tuesday, September 30, 2025, another incident occurred in Cologne-Holweide that made residents sit up and take notice: a cigarette vending machine was blown up again. At around 1:35 a.m., an alert resident heard a loud bang and immediately went to check that everything was going well. On Neufelder Strasse he discovered the damaged machine with smoke rising from it and alerted the police.

What is particularly explosive is the fact that the same machine had been blown up just a few days earlier. In this first incident, two male teenagers had taken cigarette packs from the machine. These young people, who were between 15 and 18 years old and between 1.75 and 1.85 meters tall, slipped into their dark clothing unnoticed; one of them wore a striking white jacket. Surprisingly, the police were not alerted to this first incident.

Investigations are ongoing

After the latest incident, the Criminal Investigation Department 71 started investigating. It remains unclear whether the young people who appeared in the first attack were involved again this time. The police are asking the public to contact them if they see anything suspicious. The relevant information is available on 0221 229-0 or by email poststelle.koeln@polizei.nrw.de available.

Youth crime is an issue that attracts attention not only in Cologne, but nationwide. It is generally stated that the majority of young people stop their criminal behavior as they grow up. Although the figures show that a significant proportion of young people become delinquents, statistics show that serious forms of juvenile crime are rare and the majority of offenses are of a minor nature.

A look at the numbers

In a nationwide student survey, 43.7% of male and 23.6% of female students said they had committed a crime in recent years. The phenomenon is particularly prevalent among male youth, which is also shown in the surveys of the Duisburg longitudinal study. It was found that 84% of boys and 69% of girls between the ages of 13 and 18 had committed a crime at least once.

The cases presented in Cologne therefore also reflect a larger trend. It is important that the causes of such acts are examined more comprehensively. Integration problems and social circumstances often play a decisive role in the behavior of young people, especially those with a migrant background. Therefore, prevention should focus on the causes, not just the symptoms, of crime.