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Not Your Normal Barn Find....


Cypress Sun

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An 84 year old man in Germany convicted of weapons violations when authorities find a WWII Panzer tank, AA gun and other assorted items. The tank appears to be in great condition still. More details and some video below.

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-04/german-court-convicts-pensioner-for-owning-tank/100347980

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During the raid of the defendant's property, authorities also seized machine guns, automatic pistols and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition.

 

Local media reported at the time that the man made no secret of his weapons collection and even brought the tank out during a bad winter to use as a snowplough.

 

Outside court, the man's lawyer Gerald Goecke said the suspended sentence reflected that the weapons were intended as museum pieces, not for any harm.

 

The Germans had automatic pistols? Can someone educate me on this?

 

More than 1,000 rounds? Um, uh, never mind... I might resemble that description.

 

No secret, as in he felt no reason to hide that he had all this because he had no ill motives and did not think he was violating any law?

 

The court gave him time to donate or sell his goods to a museum or legitimate collector (why is he not considered a legitimate owner?) and is fining him about $400,000 USD. Hope he sells it for well over a million! And hope he challenges the fine as unjust confiscation of his snow plow.

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"German authorities removed the Panther tank from the 84-year-old's property in 2015."

 

Thought I'd seen those pics before.

I wonder what finally happened?

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23 minutes ago, John Kloehr said:

The Germans had automatic pistols? Can someone educate me on this?

 

More than 1,000 rounds? Um, uh, never mind... I might resemble that description.

 

No secret, as in he felt no reason to hide that he had all this because he had no ill motives and did not think he was violating any law?

 

The court gave him time to donate or sell his goods to a museum or legitimate collector (why is he not considered a legitimate owner?) and is fining him about $400,000 USD. Hope he sells it for well over a million! And hope he challenges the fine as unjust confiscation of his snow plow.

 

Maybe the MP38's and MP40's were considered pistols.

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21 minutes ago, Cypress Sun said:

 

Maybe the MP38's and MP40's were considered pistols.

 

Since the MP in the designation is for ""Maschinenpistole"  that is a good bet.

 

1 hour ago, Tex Jones, SASS 2263 said:

That Panther has no tracks and probably doesn't run since it was pulled out by a recovery vehicle. 

 

In the article it said that he used it as a snow plough, but didn't say how long ago.

 

Would they have removed the tracks to make it easier to pull out?

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I read in another article about this stash that the guys attorney was claiming all the weapons were non-functional.   If that's true then it seems all that stuff, with the exception of the ammo, is just a bunch of really cool looking scrap metal.  I'd love to have some scrap metal in the shape of a Stg. 44 or a Panther tank.

 

Angus

 

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oooooooooooooooohhhh, he had a 1000 rounds of ammo - unless it was for the tank , i suspect he just had a little for each other weapon , that would just be collector quantity , 

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1 hour ago, Cowtown Scout, SASS #53540 L said:

Check out this video that actually references his purchase of the tank from Britain 

 

 

Here is the associated video on this particular tank seizure:

 

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On 8/4/2021 at 5:14 PM, John Kloehr said:

The Germans had automatic pistols? Can someone educate me on this?

 

It's not uncommon to refer to semi-auto pistols as automatic pistols. Remember the official nomenclature of Old Slabsides?

"Pistol, Automatic, Caliber .45, Model of 1911"

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