Perpetrators tracked down

Electronic waste stored in someone else’s wine cellar

Huge amounts of electronic waste (symbolic image) were dumped in someone else's cellar without being asked - trial. (symbolic image)(Bild: Mario Hšsel)

A 55-year-old man disposed of unwanted garbage in someone else's cellar in the district of Tulln without being asked. The perpetrator was tracked down using a wildlife camera - and has now been given an additional sentence at the court in St. Pölten.

The desperation is written all over his face: "I just want all the electronic waste to disappear again," the victim hopes for judicial support. Because what found its way into his wine cellar unnoticed in March has given the 47-year-old no peace since then. Countless monitors, laptops, computer accessories, but also drills and several canisters were simply stored near the Danube.

"It was an absolute emergency situation", the owner of the "hot goods" tries to justify himself. The Bulgarian had chosen the empty wine cellar - which is temporarily used as a storage room for potatoes - as temporary storage without further ado, as he had to dispose of the old appliances as quickly as possible.

Additional penalty imposed
He claims to have pushed open the padlock on the cellar door with his bare hands. "It was already quite rusty, it came open quite easily," said the 55-year-old, who had to answer for attempted burglary in court in St. Pölten.

You can't just store things in someone else's cellar, not even in Bulgaria. That's not possible.

Richter zum Angeklagten

"What's inside has to come out. I don't care about the lock," says the cellar owner. The fact is: the Bulgarian cannot be punished for storing things without asking. For the damaged lock, however, there is 20 euros in compensation and an additional suspended prison sentence of one month. The 55-year-old had already served ten months for another offense.