In 1971, the founder of popular grocery store Aldi, Theo Albrecht, was kidnapped by Heinz-Joachim Ollenburg, a lawyer, and his accomplice Paul Kron.
The men held Theo at gunpoint and once they confirmed their target, they took Theo to Duesseldorf, a city just over twenty miles from Theo’s hometown of Essen.
There, they kept him in a wardrobe while they contacted the family and demanded a ransom of 7 million Deutschmark, the equivalent of about 2.7 million dollars.
For 17 days, Theo was kept locked away before the ransom was paid. It later came out that Theo negotiated the ransom with his kidnappers.
His kidnappers were eventually caught by authorities, but only half of the money was recovered.
Theo later unsuccessfully claimed the ransom as a tax deductible business expense in court.
At the time of his death in 2010, Theo was ranked by Forbes as the 31st richest person in the world, with a net worth of $16.7 billion.
In 1971, the founder of popular grocery store Aldi, Theo Albrecht, was kidnapped by Heinz-Joachim Ollenburg, a lawyer, and his accomplice Paul Kron.
The men held Theo at gunpoint and once they confirmed their target, they took Theo to Duesseldorf, a city just over twenty miles from Theo’s hometown of Essen.
There, they kept him in a wardrobe while they contacted the family and demanded a ransom of 7 million Deutschmark, the equivalent of about 2.7 million dollars.
For 17 days, Theo was kept locked away before the ransom was paid. It later came out that Theo negotiated the ransom with his kidnappers.
His kidnappers were eventually caught by authorities, but only half of the money was recovered.
Theo later unsuccessfully claimed the ransom as a tax deductible business expense in court.
At the time of his death in 2010, Theo was ranked by Forbes as the 31st richest person in the world, with a net worth of $16.7 billion.