Bureaucracy monster

Why a Fiat has been rusting at the police station for eight years

The white paintwork has long since shown traces of gray-green.(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

At some point, observant passers-by began to wonder: a Fiat with Italian license plates has been parked behind the Tyrolean state police headquarters on Herzog-Siegmund-Ufer am Inn for years. The "Krone" investigated how this came about.

Once it was white, but now a gray-green coating has covered the paint. No wonder, because the vehicle on the wall of the Tyrolean state police headquarters has to withstand the summer heat as well as many a layer of snow in winter.

It all started with a drug drive
It was the police themselves who initially parked the Fiat in their yard in Kaiserjägerstraße and, due to the reconstruction work there, on the Inn. "The whole thing goes back to a drug smuggling trip in 2017," said spokeswoman Julia Plank, looking through the now thick mountain of files. The car was initially confiscated as evidence.

Numerous contacts were made and the Italian authorities were then actually able to contact the car's owner.

Polizeisprecherin Julia Plank

Bild: Birbaumer Christof

Gray-green marks had long since appeared on the white paint.(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

This was later overturned by the public prosecutor's office and the Italian driver was actually allowed to pick up his Fiat again. "Numerous contacts were made and the Italian authorities were actually able to reach the car owner. But he was apparently no longer interested," explains Plank.

Fiat was handed over to the police
In 2023 - after a lot of back and forth - the so-called dereliction finally took place. In officialese, this means that the ownership relationship was terminated. The Fiat was then "assigned" to the regional police headquarters. Because the unloved car was on their property.

(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

What happens to the car
What happens next? Years ago, an expert assessed the residual value of the vehicle as low - less than 1000 euros. As a result, the Italian license plates had to be returned, which again triggered a considerable amount of correspondence. The license plates are currently still mounted.

They will probably end up being scrapped, which could again incur costs. The only benefit for the police so far: the "eternal Fiat" has occasionally been used in road traffic training courses.