Tuesday, September 30
“Where’s my wallaby?” Der Spiegel owner has lost his animal
For two days, an exotic creature about 80 centimetres tall has been hopping through the Brandenburg bush – and it remains at large. Footage of the marsupial has circulated widely on social media: first showing it bounding across a street at night, then skipping past a public water pump in daylight. To add a further twist, the fugitive animal, which is knee-high and resembles a small kangaroo, reportedly belongs to a prominent figure in German media: Jakob Augstein, partial owner of Der Spiegel and former editor-in-chief of Der Freitag.
Police confirmed that the wallaby is still roaming freely, though they admit to being poorly equipped for the chase. “We don’t have professional capture techniques,” a spokesperson said. “We can only try to catch it with a blanket or a snare, like those used for stray dogs. We have nothing else at our disposal.”
The newspaper BZ reported that the animal escaped from an enclosure on Augstein’s spacious waterfront property, where five other wallabies remain behind, waiting for their missing companion.
Experts warn that anyone who encounters the marsupial should keep their distance. Attempts to capture it are strongly discouraged; instead, sightings should be reported to the district veterinary office or the police. One woman said she spotted the wallaby at 5:30 on Sunday morning. “It hopped past me in the dark at the corner of Sakrower Kirchweg,” she recalled.
Augstein has not commented publicly, and the animal is still on the run.
