Kiosk Owner Says Thief Took €200 in Energy Drinks, Left Cash Register ‘Like a Museum Piece’

A theft with priorities

At 6:18 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 13, Ercan Yilmaz, 39, opened Späti Komet at Müllerstraße 146, 13353 Berlin-Wedding, expecting the usual: tired commuters, half-spoken greetings, and someone buying cigarettes with a handful of sticky coins.

Instead, he found a gap in the refrigerator wall that looked less like a crime scene and more like an interior design decision.

“All the energy drinks were gone. Like, clean. But the cash register? Untouched.” Yilmaz said, standing beside a display of lighters and polite regret. “I’m not saying I respect it. But it’s… disciplined. Like a diet plan from hell.”

Yilmaz estimated the loss at €197.40—“two hundred euros if you count emotional damage”—based on 83 missing cans of major brands and off-label “Berlin Booster” imports. Notably, the thief left behind cheaper options, including warm Club-Mate bottles and a tray of expired protein pudding “that nobody admits to buying.”

Method: a careful hand, an empty fridge

According to a source in the Abschnitt 15 police station on Perleberger Straße, officers reviewed security footage showing a person entering the shop at 3:41 a.m. through the propped-open door commonly used by smokers, delivery drivers, and people “waiting for the universe to make a decision,” as one witness put it.

The figure—wearing black jeans, a black hoodie, and the standard Berlin expression of being both over it and still high—appears to bypass the counter entirely and go straight for the refrigerated unit. They spend nearly seven minutes selecting only high-caffeine, sugar-heavy varieties.

“They touched nothing else. No lottery tickets. No cash. Not even the condoms, which is rare around here,” said Ebru Demir, 28, a nurse who stopped in at 6:26 a.m. for “a coffee that tastes like regret with a lid.”

Demir said the moment felt “oddly intimate,” adding, “You could see the empty shelves. It was hard to swallow, honestly. Like walking into a library after someone stole all the adjectives.”

Police response: serious tone, absurd content

Police spokesperson Jörg Bernau confirmed an investigation into theft is underway.

“At this stage we are not excluding an organized group,” Bernau said. “Energy drinks are high-demand goods in the nightlife economy and often used as informal currency during extended weekends.”

A second officer, speaking off record “because this is embarrassing,” noted that an abandoned can was found near the rear exit, chilled and unopened. “That’s the part that feels like performance art,” the officer said, comparing it to “something you’d see at a Biennale, if the Biennale smelled like disinfectant and ketamine.”

Neighborhood theories: politics, poetry, and the crash

Residents offered explanations ranging from desperation to aesthetics.

“This is late capitalism but with better branding,” said Marvin Koç, 33, who runs a nearby Turkish bakery on Gerichtstraße and described a Monday morning clientele “half-awake, half-sorry, all hungry.”

Outside the shop at 8:02 a.m., two clubgoers—still in all black, their Monday stride of pride moving toward the U8—suggested the thief may have been stocking an after-party apartment “where Tuesday is just a concept.”

“It’s like Dostoevsky, but with taurine,” one said, declining to provide a name, then asking Yilmaz if the Späti had “anything that penetrates the soul faster than caffeine.”

Yilmaz has since installed a second camera and rearranged the fridge so the energy drinks sit behind water.

“Maybe they’ll take something healthy next time,” he said. “Or at least leave me one. I’m a businessman. I can handle stiff competition. But I’d like to stay conscious during it.”

Police asked anyone with information to contact Abschnitt 15—preferably before their own energy supply runs out.