- Narrator: This is the story of a crime, just as it happened, from its beginning, in the quiet little town of Neustadt. Emil Tischbein - young, eager, unsuspecting - holds a ticket on the morning bus to Berlin; a holiday and a mission.
- Narrator: This man is a skrink - August Grundeis, alias The Mole - with a police record as long as your arm; a fugitive from justice.
- Pony: I hope that Emil has some interesting news, something I can use in my column. It's not so easy writing a column for every single issue of the school paper; you just run out of things to say. Then when you don't have anything much to say, you have to say it in a different way, or real funny, and that isn't too easy either.
- Emil Tischbein: He wears a checkered suit with a big silver chain across the front, and he wiggles his ears.
- Wachtmeister Stucke: Every holiday it's the same thing. "Let's pull a prank on Officer Stucke. It's easy to trick Officer Stucke if you've only got the nerve. I dare you. I double dare you!" Now I tell you something. Officer Stucke is up to here with pranks!