TV detective enters giraffe heart attack vandal case

Result of vandalism at Lodz Zoo: PAP/Grzegorz Michałowski

Private detective Krzysztof Rutkowski says animal rights activists have contacted him in the wake of the deaths of the animals on Saturday night, Sunday morning, at the zoo in Lodz, central Poland.

The small zoo cannot afford CCTV cameras, so the identity and number of vandals who literally frightened the giraffes to death is unknown.

“We hope for a quick resolution of this case,” says Rutkowski, who starred in the Detektyw TV documentary series, which followed his exploits in tracking down missing persons and other cases.

“We have taken steps to apprehend the perpetrators of this vandalism,” Rutkowski, who runs the Rutkowski Patrol company, told the TVN 24 news station.

Rutkowski, a former part time actor and MP for the rural-based Self Defence (Samoobrona) party, also hit the headlines earlier this year when he got the mother of six-month old Magda to confess that the baby had not been kidnapped, as she originally claimed, but had dropped the baby accidentally and disposed of the body on the banks of a nearby river.

Mayor of Lodz, Hanna Zdanowska has offered a reward of 5,000 zloty (1,100 euros) for anyone who can help identify the perpetrators of the vandalism at the zoo.

The vandals destroyed information boards and threw around benches and garbage cans near where the giraffes were being kept.

An autopsy later showed that the giraffes suffered from weak hearts. (pg)