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Apparently, there was some stolen artwork but it someone else's: >Authorities discovered the illegal military arsenal during a 2015 raid of the collector’s sto

Apparently, there was some stolen artwork but it someone else's: >Authorities discovered the illegal military arsenal during a 2015 raid of the collector’s storage facility in northern Germany in an investigation into black market Nazi-era art that turned up two bronze horse statues which once stood in front of Adolf Hitler’s chancellery. Those items were in another man’s possession. The more interesting thing to me is that it took the government 6 years to figure out that his collection was a problem. And this is the German government which is supposed to be efficient. Not that I think that an 84 or even 78 year old man is going to be committing an acts of terror.

GekkePrutser 5y ago
> Not that I think that an 84 or even 78 year old man is going to be committing an acts of terror. No but it could be stolen by others to commit such crimes or other ones like a bank robbery.
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago
  That is pure fantasy. Stealing a tank is so conspicuous that no self respecting criminal would ever try it. It doesn't blend in and you'd never even get close to your target. It also doubles the number of crimes you need to pull off because first you need to steal the tank and the cops will be on your tail starting then vs starting when you commit the real crime you set out for. Want to run over crowds? Rent a truck Want to break buildings or infrastructure? Rent construction equipment.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    Some crazies have done similar things here. Crime in Western Europe is getting really extreme. In Holland it's now commonplace to steal money from ATMs by blowing up half the block (they call it a 'plofkraak'). https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=plofkraak&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=plofkraak&iax=images&ia=ima... In Amsterdam passengers of a tram had to drop to the floor because some assassins wanted to kill someone and took the whole area under machine gun fire, didn't care about collateral damage. In Belgium there was the "bende van Nijvel" that would rob supermarkets with machine guns and kill civilians on the motorways just to slow down pursuers. (This is a couple of decades ago though) I wouldn't be surprised if someone steals a tank just to gain access to a nearby bank by ramming the walls or something, and then of course use another vehicle for escaping.
- themaninthedark 5y ago
  That is a fair point. My counter point would be that there are other heavy machinery that you do not need to get special permission to own that can be used in the same capacity. Large trucks, bulldozers, excavators. Those can also be easily stolen to commit crimes as well, yet are not. Also this particular tank, while they talk about it being used to remove snow at some point also seemed to be fairly hard to move. >It took about 20 soldiers almost nine hours to extract the Panther tank - which was without its tracks - from the property. Unless they were taking very special care not to damage other property, it does not seem like it would have been easily stolen.
  - GekkePrutser 5y ago
    Excavators and heavy trucks definitely were stolen. Thieves used them to ram the facades of jewellers, ATMs etc. This is why such businesses now have those poles that are raised out of the street. It was very common in the Netherlands before the thieves upgraded themselves to explosives (which I mentioned in the post below). But good point about the tracks yeah.

GekkePrutser 5y ago

> Not that I think that an 84 or even 78 year old man is going to be committing an acts of terror. No but it could be stolen by others to commit such crimes or other ones like a bank robbery.

throwaway0a5e 5y ago
That is pure fantasy. Stealing a tank is so conspicuous that no self respecting criminal would ever try it. It doesn't blend in and you'd never even get close to your target. It also doubles the number of crimes you need to pull off because first you need to steal the tank and the cops will be on your tail starting then vs starting when you commit the real crime you set out for. Want to run over crowds? Rent a truck Want to break buildings or infrastructure? Rent construction equipment.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  Some crazies have done similar things here. Crime in Western Europe is getting really extreme. In Holland it's now commonplace to steal money from ATMs by blowing up half the block (they call it a 'plofkraak'). https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=plofkraak&iax=images&ia=images https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=plofkraak&iax=images&ia=ima... In Amsterdam passengers of a tram had to drop to the floor because some assassins wanted to kill someone and took the whole area under machine gun fire, didn't care about collateral damage. In Belgium there was the "bende van Nijvel" that would rob supermarkets with machine guns and kill civilians on the motorways just to slow down pursuers. (This is a couple of decades ago though) I wouldn't be surprised if someone steals a tank just to gain access to a nearby bank by ramming the walls or something, and then of course use another vehicle for escaping.
themaninthedark 5y ago
That is a fair point. My counter point would be that there are other heavy machinery that you do not need to get special permission to own that can be used in the same capacity. Large trucks, bulldozers, excavators. Those can also be easily stolen to commit crimes as well, yet are not. Also this particular tank, while they talk about it being used to remove snow at some point also seemed to be fairly hard to move. >It took about 20 soldiers almost nine hours to extract the Panther tank - which was without its tracks - from the property. Unless they were taking very special care not to damage other property, it does not seem like it would have been easily stolen.
- GekkePrutser 5y ago
  Excavators and heavy trucks definitely were stolen. Thieves used them to ram the facades of jewellers, ATMs etc. This is why such businesses now have those poles that are raised out of the street. It was very common in the Netherlands before the thieves upgraded themselves to explosives (which I mentioned in the post below). But good point about the tracks yeah.