14 DAY TRIAL // Here's something to put even “Hoarders” to shame: a 69-year-old man has been detained by police after it was discovered he had stolen no less than 25 tons of goods while working as caretaker for the Stuttgart administration.
Police officers are still busy trying to catalog the goods the unnamed man took home from work, with Spiegel reporting that charges might not be brought against him because he never had any intention of selling them.
In other words, the man kept all 25 tons of useless stuff, including fire extinguishers, ladders, buckets, toilet paper, toilet brushes, pens, vacuums, fax paper and such, inside his apartment, which measures about 100 square meters.
“The value of the goods would amount to several hundred thousand euros,” police spokesman Olef Petersen tells Spiegel Online.
“We have towed the seized material with three lorries to a disused police station. That's not easy,” Petersen says, stressing that the activity of recuperating the goods is perhaps as difficult as it was for the man to steal them in the first place.
Spiegel notes that the pensioner has admitted to taking home all that stuff that clearly did not belong to him, over the 25 years he was in the same position.
He stopped when he retired in 2007 and would have probably gotten away with it, had it not been for several anonymous tips police got over the phone.
As of now, the man has refused to offer a clear reason for his out of the ordinary hoarding habit.
He might not even be charged with anything, since he stole some of the stuff many years ago and chances are the DA won't be able to prosecute him for it.
Investigators are now trying to determine how such “leaks” could occur without anyone noticing or doing something about it. If need be, they will require a psychiatric evaluation for the old man.
All the goods will be returned to the city of Stuttgart.