German police track rash driver with sketch from six-year-olds

Forensic artists in the making? Last week, a regular cold Wednesday morning turned exciting for four six-year-olds in Germany’s Bockum-Hövel district. On November 11, as they waited for the traffic light to turn green at a pedestrian crossing en route to the Overberg School, little did Luisa, Romy, Celina, and Luis know that soon they would be helping cops fight crime.

It was around 8.40am when the primary-schoolers suddenly saw a black vehicle turn left from “Uphofstrasse into Horster Strasse” and hit a barrier in the process.

The post snapped, but the driver ignored the damage and drove on.

When they arrived at the school, the attentive witnesses told their class teacher about how the culprit with short blond hair had cunningly managed to escape. The teacher informed the responsible district police officer. Celina and Luis made him a sketch of the accident and a mug shot of the fugitive driver to help the cops catch the offender.

The local police department @polizei_nrw_ham tweeted the photos of the sketches that are now part of the investigation file.

They also wrote: “Luisa, Romy, Celina, and Luis from the dragon class at the Overberg School deserve special praise from the police.”

While Luis’s picture helped the police note that it was a black car, Celina’s picture showed how the woman driver hit the brakes and had onlookers gasping in surprise. She didn’t forget to add details of the crime scene, a broken barrier, stick figures of herself and her friends, and an adult who was with them.

Reacting to the tweet, Twitter user @UrAvgHomoSapien posted: “Rolling on the floor laughing… That's cute, I hope you catch the culprit.”

Meanwhile, many others retweeted the sketches and the young sketch artists made it to international news media websites.