Student Jailed For Stealing Beer Glass (Munich)

[matcom]

hope they don't find my "collection" :evilgrin:

<snip>

A MUNICH court has freed a US student who spent four weeks in custody after he tried to steal a beer glass from the city's famous Hofbraeuhaus beer hall.

Munich prosecutors filed charges of violent theft against 22-year-old Christopher Tansay of New Mexico after his attempt to take the one-litre glass - worth 8 euros ($13.68) - ended in a scuffle with a security guard.

The Munich administrative court convicted him and imposed a fine of 1,260 euros ($2,155).

The charge can carry a prison term of one year or more, but a court-appointed expert, Wolfgang Eissenmenger, told the hearing that stealing beer glasses "is a sport at the Oktoberfest and the Hofbraeuhaus".

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,10530794%255E13762,00.html

[freetobegay]

1. Just goes to show you crime doesn't pay

No matter how petty you might think it is.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. That's for sure

And look at what the governments of Germany have considered to be against the law in just the past, oh, 60 years or so.

--bkl
Obedience to the Law is the Beginning of Wisdom.

[Kellanved]

3. Bavaria is a lot like Texas

Arch-conservative state, wacko justice system.

The student had bad luck with the prosecutor and the police officer: for some reason he tried to get a conviction for robbery instead of petty theft.

As a result the student had to spent time in jail. In the end he was lucky to get a sane judge, who lowered the offense to theft. Robbery carries a minimum sentence of one year.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. What do you think the statute of limitations is? I took three steins from

3 beer tents during the Oktoberfest 1979, including Hofbrauhaus.

[matcom]

5. I filled a duffelbag from 6 tents in '88

:D