At the green border

Firecracker smuggler was stopped by mud

At night and in fog, a young man and his friends wanted to prepare for a loud spectacle on New Year's Eve. But the muddy ground on a country lane put a spanner in the works. Instead of fireworks, there's now a penalty.

Under the cover of darkness, unknown persons sneaked across the green border near Kleinhaugsdorf in the district of Hollabrunn. During the ensuing manhunt, police officers came across a group trying in vain to get a car stuck in the mud back on a dirt track. When the officers then carried out a close inspection of the vehicle, they were quite astonished - they discovered highly explosive cargo in the car.

Explosive cargo confiscated
A Viennese man (20) had attempted to smuggle 219 pieces of pyrotechnic articles of classes F3 and F4 across the border to Austria in the car. The banned firecrackers were then confiscated and the Viennese man was charged.