Bulgarian court sentences 2 Germans, 1 Bulgarian for stealing WWII Panzer tank .

The defendants were found guilty of smuggling a MK IV Panzer tank out of Bulgaria. They were arrested in 2007 while trying to steal a second Panzer tank.

The Canadian Press: Bulgarian court sentences 2 Germans, 1 Bulgarian for stealing WWII Panzer tank

 

If im going to get into serious trouble-it will be because of somehting similar ;-)) Glad to see that that ghost tank is probably in better hands at least.

 

Next years holiday plans cancelled

 

I can imagine their laywer saying "it was their opa's Panzer"

 

Nice try, Wolverines.

The puns one can make from this post, they never end!

Were these tanks displayed for historical purpose or where they simply left behind and "lost" in a sense? Why did veterans groups protest the tank sales?

And how do you steal a tank?!? Surely they didn't drive off with it since I doubt one would work, but I guess it depends on the conditions.

 

These Pz IVs were all supposedly buried along the border for years from when the soviets started to supply weapons to Bulgaria and they no longer wanted to use them, then later they were dug up and presumably dumped somewhere after the cold war. Last I heard nobody knew where they were but it seems that some people do - I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be driveable, I think the engines were probably taken out back when they first buried them.

Edit; found some pics;

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ieJBvv9fBtCP9fMVoDwwNMdZDdHA
http://www.com-central.net/index.php?name=forums&file=viewtopic&t=8865
http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/showthread.php?t=272293&page=2
http://the.shadock.free.fr/Surviving_Panzer_IV_variants.pdf

 

And now we know just whom is manning their "West Wall". :lol::lol:

 

From what I heard, most of these are already in collectors collections.

 

Loving the SU-76 hybrid - might have to make a model of that when i get my round tuit back

 

All of the pictures I've seen of these tanks show them in what looks to be a government equipment yard of some sort, and there are quite a few different models of tanks, both German & Russian, in the yard; I recall seeing at least one Hetzer, an StuG III or IV (all I could see was the superstructure), and a PzKpfw IV.