Photo: E+
When is collecting a bad thing? In Germany a court has ruled that a German man must give up his collection of WWII weaponry and pay a hefty fine. The 84 year old man was convicted in court of illegal weapons possession for having an arsenal that included a WWII tank, a flak cannon, and multiple other weapons of that era. The court gave the man a suspended prison sentence of 14 months and ordered him to pay a fine of $300,000. The man was also told to sell or donate his tank and anti-air cannon to a museum or collector within the next two years. This all came down in a 2015 raid on the man's storage unit during an investigation into black market Nazi-era art that turned up two bronze horse statues that were in front of Hilter's chancellery, but those items belonged to another man. Along with the tank and whatnot, authorities also found machine guns, automatic pistols, and 1,000 rounds of ammo. The made it no secret, during the winter months he would bring the tank out and use it as a snow plow.