The trial of an 84-year-old German man and his collection of WWII artillery has come to an end. The man, who was not named as a result of German privacy laws, has been handed a suspended 14-month prison sentence and ordered to pay a €250,000 ($293,700 USD) fine.
Authorities raided the man’s house in 2015 and found a World War II-era Panther tank, an anti-aircraft gun, a torpedo, a horde of Nazi memorabilia, and more. It took the military 9 hours to remove the tank, which had no tracks, from the man’s basement.
The trial was held to determine whether the man could be convicted for violating Germany’s War Weapons Control Act, reports the BBC. The man’s defense lawyer, though, argued that these were museum pieces, rather than weapons of war, at this point.
Read Also: This Ford Crown Victoria Is Getting A 27-Liter Twin-Turbo V12 From A Tank
He used the tank once for snow plowing
Although many of the weapons had been decommissioned, some were still functional, and authorities were told that the owner had used the tank to plow snow on his property one winter by neighbors, reports the Associated Press.
Local authorities were tipped off to the collection by their colleagues in Berlin, who had investigated the house for stolen Nazi art.
Along with the fine and the suspended prison sentence, the man is being required to sell or donate his tank and his anti-aircraft gun within the next two years. The lawyer for the defense said that the museum in the U.S. had expressed an interest in the tank.