"WW2 Panther tank seized from pensioner's cellar" Topic

"Police in northern Germany have seized a World War Two tank which was being kept in a pensioner's cellar.

The Panther tank was removed from the 78-year-old's house in the town of Heikendorf, along with a variety of other military equipment, including a torpedo and an anti-aircraft gun, Der Tagesspiegel website reports. It wasn't an easy job to get it all out – the army had to be called in with modern-day tanks to haul the Panther from its cellar. It took about 20 soldiers almost nine hours to extract the tank – which was without its tracks – and push it onto a low-loader, the report says. As the surreal scene unfolded, local residents gathered at the end of the driveway to watch.

Prosecutors in the nearby city of Kiel are investigating whether the man's military collection violates Germany's War Weapons Control Act. But his lawyer says the weapons are no longer functional, therefore shouldn't be restricted…"

From here
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Amicalement
Armand

You posted this several weeks ago Armand, looks like it was a quiet day at the news service.

Of course most of us would LOVE to have a basement big enough to hold a Panther, an 88 flak and sundry other hardware – just think of the all weekend games you could hold once you cleared out the clutter.

Don't remember that… and totally agree that I would love to have them!!!… (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Good idea, waste time going after a poor old man, instead of addressing the real safety issues they have there, instead.

Brilliant!

This is at least a year old and the claim of non-functional appears to be disputed. I think the firing pins were removed is the argument and that is not non-functional by law since it is too easy to put them back in.

With you Mak, and yeah Dynaman the guy is going to replace the pins put on his uniform at 78 and go to war. Common sense he was not interested in making them functional, but Germany likes to get to the final late. Maybe he was waiting for his 90th before he decided to declare war ;/ yes old story but still fascinating, who can say I've a panther in my basement besides a cruel exotic pets owner.

Nice snark there Zargon. What part of it being illegal just to own such weaponry in such a state without a proper license is so hard to grasp, or should old people be allowed to break any law they wish?

I would like to see a follow up article to this one explaining what the legal outcome was. The mayor in an old article said everyone in town knew the old guy had these in his basement, even used to use the tank as a snow plow 30 years ago.

Illegal is up for dispute according to some articles I have read on this incident. Somehow an elderly gun who has had these in his possession for 70 years does not seem to be much of a public safety threat.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

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Follow up in German. At this point nothing has moved, the tank is still confiscated and hopefully in storage somewhere and the owner still has to file the required papers.

The point is that existence of the tank was common knowledge. Oddly enough it had been repaired by the Bundeswehr only a few years earlier and nobody raised any alarms then.

But police looking for stolen art bumped into this and freaked out that someone could own a tank and they are looking for people to blame.

One can only hope that they aren't dumb enough to send it to a junkyard to be disposed of.

Now can I duck:)

Tell him to go and buy some models, they will take up a lot less space.