Klaus-Dieter F., a resident of Heckendorf, Germany (whose real name cannot be published due to privacy laws), recovered a Panther tank from a British scrapyard in the 1970s, repaired it, rumbled through the streets of the town, and used it as a snowplow in the middle of winter.
After the authorities noticed the old man's eccentricities, they discovered that his collection was not limited to the 45-ton tank. There was also an 88mm anti-aircraft gun in his home. They continued to debate for ten years how to characterize these weapons. It was not until 2015 that the authorities obtained court permission to raid the mansion of the retired financial tycoon in the name of searching for Nazi art.
In addition to the above-mentioned heavy weapons, the search operation also recovered a large number of relics of the Third Reich, including a statue that once stood outside the Reich Chancellery and was created by Hitler's favorite sculptor Arno Breker; as well as a batch of flags and lamps with eagles and SS emblems, busts of Hitler, Nazi uniforms, etc. It took more than 20 Wehrmacht soldiers nine hours to load the tank onto the truck, for which an active tank rescue vehicle was dispatched:
The defendant was sentenced to 14 months in prison (suspended due to age issues) and fined 250,000 euros. The defendant's lawyer stated that the tank had long since been "de-weaponized" and could not fire live ammunition. It was inappropriate for the authorities to pursue his client's liability under the Arms Control Act.
It is said that several collectors are interested in this "Heikendorfer Panther". 6,000 Black Panthers were produced during World War II. So far, less than twenty Black Panthers with relatively complete bodies have survived, and only a handful of them can be driven (it is said that there are only six). This Black Panther, which is capable of snow plowing tasks in winter, is worth at least millions of dollars.
The Heickendorf Panther did not experience the war. It was actually assembled by the British in the German factory they occupied. The parts were taken from nine unfinished Panthers and 12 unfinished Jaguars (tank destroyers). They were assembled into a complete vehicle and shipped back to the UK for testing.
After the test, the Panther was abandoned in an abandoned equipment storage yard in southern England. When the scrapyard was cleaning up the remains in the early 1970s, it sold the Panther to the German financier and transported it back to its birthplace via the Netherlands:
After returning to China, the Panther was restored to usable condition in a factory in Solingen and became an alternative classic car in the 1980s, rumbling through the streets of small towns in northern Germany.