Police arrest old man because of a dangerous object in his basement
You’ll never believe what the police found in this old German man’s basement.
Sometimes you come across a story that makes you go “huh?”. This is one of those stories. What this old man was keeping in his basement shocked even the most experienced police agents. This dangerous object was the result of an interesting hobby, leading to the man being sentenced to 14 months in jail.
Want to hear the story? Read on now!
Interesting hobby
Old men and their hobbies… It’s best not to bother them when they’re working on their model trains that take up the whole attic, or when they’re concentrating on the 14 types of birds that fly around the region in their binoculars.
Unlike these innocent activities, an old man from Germany had a very interesting hobby that kept him busy. This led to him receiving a 14-month jail sentence. While the odd hobby made headlines, the man’s identity was not revealed. This is due to the privacy laws in Germany.
Curious about his hobby? You’ll read it on the next page!
Collector
The 84-year-old German was a collector. As you surely known, even the strangest objects can be collected. Stamps, beer bottles, dolls, toothbrushes: think of the weirdest object you can, and it’s guaranteed that someone collects it. But this hobby still has limits. This collector found that out the hard way.
He got locked up because of a very dangerous object, one he kept in his basement. While most people would keep some serious distance from the object, this German collector saw it as a nice addition to his collection. It was a pricy mistake.
Curious to find out what the man collected? Read on now!
Collection
The man was always very interested in history. He had seen a lot in his days and looked back fondly on the past. To get back to the feeling of this period, the man decided to surround himself with objects from back then.
While some people may love the 80’s, the 60’s or even Victorian Times, this man was interested in a very different time period. A period in which much happened on our little planet. He decided to collect objects from this period and display them in his house.
One object caught the police’s attention…
World War II
The man was obsessed with World War II. His house was filled with crazy amounts of objects from the dark time in humanity. From statues to flags, bullets to paintings: you’d think you were back in the 40’s when you entered this man’s home.
One day in 2015, police went into the man’s home after receiving a tip about numerous illegal objects he had in his possession. It took the police nine hours to empty the house. They took the old man to the police station.
Why did it take nine hours? Read on now!
Not quite everything…
While the police had been tipped off about the man owning illegal weapons and other objects, they didn’t realize the severity of the situation until that day. The man had added one piece to his collection that made the rest seem like nothing.
The police were shocked when they discovered the object in the basement. They weren’t prepared for this. In the end, it took them nine hours to empty out the house because they had to be extremely careful. There were rumors of the man owning a very interesting object, but nobody had ever taken it seriously.
Curious to know what they found in the basement? You’ll find out on the next page!
The object
There wasn’t just any object in the basement. The police found a real tank. The tank was a Panther, one often used by the German army. The 40-ton monster was the main attraction of his collection.
The police weren’t impressed: it was 100% illegal to have such a dangerous vehicle in your possession. How the man had ever gotten the tank into his basement was a mystery, but there it was, a real Panther tank.
An interesting piece of history, but still…
Panther
The Panzerkampfwagen V, AKA: Panther, is a tank that the German army used in numerous battlefronts during World War II. The tank was designed after they realized that their previous models couldn’t stand up to those of the Soviet Union.
The armored vehicle could reach speeds of 55 kilometers per hour and was equipped with a canon with a 75mm caliber. This wasn’t the only artillery they found in the man’s basement. Besides the tank, they also discovered an anti-aircraft gun, with ammunition.
There had been rumors of the man possessing the tank for a while…
Plowing snow
The collector’s neighbors say that the man had the Panther in his possession since 1978. How did they know? They had seen it with their own eyes. And not in a normal way, if ever there were a ‘normal’ way to see a tank from World War II driving by…
No, in 1978, the man attached a snow shovel to the front of the tank and cleared a path. What a sight that must have been! The neighbors notified authorities at the time, but they weren’t taken seriously. 37 year later, they were finally proved right.
Jail
The German collector with a Panther tank in his basement was sentenced to 14 months in jail by a judge in 2021. He was also obligated to sell or donate the tank within two years to a museum or collector with proper paperwork in place.
The city of Kiel, in northern Germany, gave him a fine of 250,000 euros. The man accepted his sentence and admitted his guilt without comment. But the story didn’t end there.
On the next page you’ll find out what happened!
The tank
As you read on the last page, the German collector was forced to give away or sell this beloved piece of his collection. One interested buyer was a museum in the United States that liked the idea of having a Panzerkampfwagen V in their collection.
The tank is in high demand because according to historians, it’s the most efficient armored vehicle from that time. The other weapons the man owned paled in comparison. Numerous German collectors were interested in the historical weapons.
There was also, of course, the question of how the man had ever been able to purchase the tank…
Origin
The tank had made a pretty impressive journey since its beginnings in a factory in Germany in the 40’s. After the war, the journey came to a halt in a landfill in the south of England. The tank had probably been taken by a group of British soldiers after the German’s accepted defeat in 1945.
In 1977, the tank was transported through the Netherlands to Germany where it ended up in the collector’s basement. The man had the tank for decades and never tried to keep it a secret. Apparently even the mayor knew about it
The mayor made an odd comment after being questioned about the tank…
Mayor
While the German police took the possession of the tank and other illegal weapons very seriously, the mayor had a different opinion. When he was asked what he thought of the fact that a tank was found in the basement of a house in his city, he said the following:
“Some like steam trains, others like old tanks.” That’s one way to look at it of course… But there’s one big difference that he didn’t mention: steam trains don’t have giant canons on top.
The army had a different opinion…
Twenty men and nine hours
It took the German army nine hours to get the tank out of the basement. They had to get the help of twenty soldiers. Curious to see how it went? In the video below you’ll see images of the operation.
Source: Apnews, BBC, Historynet | Image: Pixabay, YouTube video stills, Pexels