Tank Story

 This is a fairly long and complicated story, and I'll try to carve it down to a simple piece.

If you've ever been to Kiel, Germany (far NW seaport town, Hanseatic city), it's known for a fair amount of history, trade, and accumulation of wealth.  

Police got called, and did a search warrant on this highly upscale property in town.  It's owned by a 84-year-old guy.....fairly well-to-do, and has a huge drive-in basement.  

The year?  2015.

So the case finally arrived in court this past week, and the old (now 84) is having to defend himself.

Over the years, he had collected military 'gear'.

So what the police upon entry?  A German 'Panther' tank (production ended in 1945), a anti-aircraft gun, torpedo, some assault rifles and pistols, with a thousand-odd rounds of ammo for the handguns.

Police had to call the German Bundeswehr 'tank-recovery' folks to drag the non-function Panther tank out of the basement.  Basically they had to hook a chain on it (it wouldn't even crank up) and damaged the basement in various ways.  

In the mind of the prosecutor, this was a violation of the War Weapons Control Act.

What the experts have said?   By the wording of the War Weapons Control Act, by being non-functional.....most of the items recovered don't count.  The only exception they had....was the anti-aircraft gun.  

What's odd about the story when you dig into it.....the guy was well known in Kiel as a collector, and it was open knowledge about his collection for years.  No one ever had a problem with this until you get to 2015.  Change in administration/personnel?  It makes you wonder how things changed and why they felt the need to dig into this.

A lot of prosecution man-hours and funding spent so far....over six years to reach this point?  Obviously.  If the bulk of this case fails....whoever led this effort is probably finished in the prosecution business.