Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Germany: Scavenge for thrown away recyclable bottles in Munich and get the book thrown at you

In the U.S., we value bottle and can scavengers so highly that we dedicate articles in the New York Times to their enterprising spirit. Germany is different.

Some German DAs seem to be underemployed due to a lack of homicides, or maybe they are frustrated because white collar crime is notoriously difficult to prosecute and, consequently, not good for their statistics?

The only other explanation for a recent court case in Munich would be some deeply troubling issues of a prosecutor. Which is impossible in the state of Bavaria, where only brilliant people get to go after criminals.

Discarding any futile musings about motives, let's simply describe how a couple in their mid-60s found themselves in court because they had fished 18 glass bottles out of a recycling container with the intent to monetize them because the disputed bottles had a deposit on them.

A resident overlooking a set of big, clunky glass bottle containers where Germans discard glass bottles that have no deposit on them observed the couple in the act of angling for bottles.

The socioeconomics of the situation are clear: the couple is not wealthy, but neither are the resident observers because ten feet by ten feet by ten metal containers that accept bottles are never placed close to richer homes.
The persons who discarded the bottles either did not know there was a deposit on them, unlikely in Germany, or did not care to take them back to the store to collect 9 cents per bottle.

According to the press, the residents called police upon seeing the nefarious activity. After the cops, a DA got involved and fined the couple, who then appealed.

At this point, the nominal value of the haul of about 1.50 dollars has caused the state to spend several hundred in prosecution costs and the couple several hundred for a lawyer (unlikely they are eligible for legal assistance, and German lawyers don't normally work pro bono).

Next came a court hearing (another few hundred right there), in which the judge showed remarkable restraint, saying that discarding the bottles voided any monetary value, and that residual value of the glass could not be determined.

The DA did not agree with letting the couple go - and appealed.

The appeals court rejected the DA's handiwork.

The blogster figured this rare case of judicial restraint deserves a write-up. After all, people do still go to jail in Germany over unpaid parking tickets worth 5 Euros.

The low parking ticket fines in Germany are an altogether different cultural phenomenon.



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