Cologne police have seized a robot and two suspects’ mobile phones after the machine allegedly groped a 16-year-old girl during a social media livestream. They are investigating suspected sexual harassment, but how the robot’s movements were directed remains unclear.
The suspects are the robot’s 16-year-old owner and his 19-year-old companion, who allegedly used remote control to make it touch the girl inappropriately. Both livestreamed the incident on social media and commented throughout. A Cologne police spokesperson said neither suspect had yet been charged, according to the account cited by the BBC.
The girl was standing with friends outside a fast-food restaurant when the 120-centimeter-tall machine approached her from behind. The red-and-gold robot, described as resembling Iron Man from the Marvel films, allegedly grabbed her buttocks and made pushing movements toward her, apparently under remote control. She cried out and moved away.
According to police, the girl immediately contacted the authorities. Officers soon found the suspects one block away, along with the robot, which had been hidden in a car’s trunk. They confiscated the machine and the suspects’ mobile phones.
A photograph published by Cologne police on Facebook shows the seized robot wearing a white shirt, sunglasses, a gold chain and a fake mustache. Its operators had added the accessories, apparently to make the video more visually striking. The photograph is credited to Polizei NRW Köln.
Police described the case as “completely new territory” for investigators. A spokesperson told the Associated Press that authorities were examining whether the robot’s actions had been programmed in advance or carried out at the scene. Remote control therefore remains part of the account, rather than a confirmed explanation of exactly how the movements were produced.
The source article’s author argues that the circumstances strongly suggest deliberate action rather than a machine simply going out of control. Discussing robots, the author also claims that remotely triggering individual movements requires specific button combinations, so the complex sequence may have required skilled control. That is the author’s assessment, not a police finding.
Investigators still need to establish the link between the suspects’ input and the robot’s movements: whether the alleged touching followed advance programming or instructions given at the scene.
