Author Topic: 84-year old German man fined for keeping Nazi tank in his underground garage  (Read 620 times)

Offline NTorch

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Feb 2016
  • Posts: 2208
  • Total likes: 1024
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 68
    • View Profile
  • Location: West Hempstead
File this under the category - you just can't make this up.

Quote
84-year old German man fined for keeping Nazi tank in his underground garage

Quote
An 84-year old German man has been fined 250,000 euros ($297,000 USD) for storing a collecting of World War II-era weapons in his basement, including a 45-ton Nazi tank, according to German media reports.

The court in Kiel, Germany convicted the man under the country’s War Weapons Control Act after a search of the octogenarian’s home resulted in the discovery of a large collection of wartime military weapons stored in his underground garage, including the Panther tank, a torpedo, mortars, anti-aircraft guns, machine guns, automatic pistols and 1,500 rounds of ammunition, the Register reported.

The defendant, whose name was kept confidential due to German privacy law, received a 14-month suspended sentence. He must donate or sell the tank and the anti-aircraft guns to a museum or collector within two years, reported the Associated Press.

The tank’s guns do not work. However, it is still operational and could be driven. The mayor of the nearby city of Keikendorf reportedly said, "He was chugging around in that thing during the snow catastrophe in 1978."

The Germany military sent 20 soldiers to the man’s house where they spent nine hours removing the tank and cash of weapons from his underground cellar.

The Panther was loaded onto a trailer using other tanks to pull it.

Fines and jail time under the War Weapons Control Act are dependant on the functionality of the weapons.

The man’s lawyer argued that while his collection contained items classified as military weapons, the prosecution hadn’t proven its case the he had broken the law.

The judge told the court that expert testimony had shown that the Panther’s rusty gun could be cleaned and restored within days, reported Deutsche Welle.

The tank’s engine had been restored but it was missing tracks.

The man’s lawyer emphasized to the court that his client is not a Nazi sympathizer and the restoration of items in his collection had been his “life’s work.”
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/311171

Offline AsherO

  • Global Moderator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 30K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 30533
  • Total likes: 7829
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 79
    • View Profile
  • Location: NYC
Cash of weapons or cache of weapons? :D
100% of Likes will be donated to support our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael

Offline TimT

  • Dansdeals Lifetime 20K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • ********
  • Join Date: Dec 2013
  • Posts: 22077
  • Total likes: 7130
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 12
    • View Profile
Should’ve moved to America. Freedom to bear arms. :)

Offline AsherO

  • Global Moderator
  • Dansdeals Lifetime 30K Presidential Platinum Elite
  • **********
  • Join Date: May 2008
  • Posts: 30533
  • Total likes: 7829
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 79
    • View Profile
  • Location: NYC
Should’ve moved to America. Freedom to bear arms. :)

Maybe the issue was that he was collecting Nazi paraphernalia, idk if there are any laws against this in the USA, or how they fit in vis-a-vis 1st/2nd amendment rights.
100% of Likes will be donated to support our brothers and sisters in Eretz Yisrael

Offline NTorch

  • Dansdeals Lifetime Platinum Elite
  • *******
  • Join Date: Feb 2016
  • Posts: 2208
  • Total likes: 1024
  • DansDeals.com Hat Tips 68
    • View Profile
  • Location: West Hempstead
Maybe the issue was that he was collecting Nazi paraphernalia, idk if there are any laws against this in the USA, or how they fit in vis-a-vis 1st/2nd amendment rights.

No one is letting you store a working tank in your garage