Operational police reports published: The search for the Berlin lioness was so bizarre

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In mid-July, all hell broke loose in Berlin for almost forty hours. After a video emerged on social media of what appeared to be a lioness, a predator alarm was sounded on the outskirts of the German capital.

Several hundred police officers searched feverishly for the big cat, which eventually turned out to be a wild boar. An armored vehicle was even used. The search for the alleged lioness made headlines around the world. As “Welt am Sonntag” reports, the operational logbook of the hunt is now available. The documents show how crazy the search actually was.

2:12 am: A user named “lqzze1” shares a video on X (formerly Twitter) that supposedly features a lioness. After writing on the bill that the police had already been informed, the authorities also confirmed the sighting. At a distance of 20 meters it was “undoubtedly” a lioness, as the report states.

08:00: Within hours, news of the possible threat spread like wildfire. Numerous residents have also reported hearing a “suspicious rustling noise.”

The longer the search went on, the more creative tips from concerned citizens became on how to catch the animal. “To attract them, you could play the roar of a male lion through a loudspeaker,” said a Berlin woman. However, the police did not seem particularly enthusiastic about the proposal. The minutes state that “the referral was noted.”

6:37 PM: Emergency services noticed a “suspicious odor of wild animals” near the forest cemetery. It is believed to be the feces of lionesses. As stated in the protocol, the vet gave permission three hours later. It was probably just dog poop.

1:37: On Friday evening, the alleged lioness’s existence becomes a little more real. Independently of each other, two residents of Berlin-Zehlendorf reported roaring lions. However, as the protocol states, this was a false alarm. Accordingly, three men played the system’s roar in their car. In the meantime, the suspicion arose that these people were looking for the wild animal for someone. The minutes mention “clan reference”.

There was sometimes speculation as to whether the lioness had escaped from one of the sons of clan boss Issa Remmo, Firas Remmo. In a post on Instagram, he suggested that the lioness “Nala” is his. But as it turned out, his action was just an attempt to fool the police.

This did not go unnoticed by the officials themselves. They quickly saw through Firas Remmo’s scam. In the minutes, Remmo’s post is dismissed as ‘pure provocation and pomposity’.

9:33 am: A trained tracker has now been assigned to the case. The tracker, adamant that it was not a lioness in the video, systematically re-examined the tracks. Three days later, residents could finally breathe a sigh of relief: the fecal and hair samples found came from a wild boar.

German authorities were met with much ridicule for the fact that the big cat was merely a wild boar. Numerous international media outlets that had reported on the large-scale operation were also forced to report the error to their readers. ‘Citizens can bring their dachshunds outside again’, wrote the French ‘Libération’, for example. (dcz)

Source: Blick