22 Jan 2019; DW: Some 80 police officers stormed the apartment of a 73-year-old German in the eastern city of Görlitz on Tuesday, after he stole 600 meters of train tracks and sold them for scrap. The pensioner made some 16,000 euros ($18,160) selling the disused track to scrap yards.
Police in Görlitz said that the unusually high number of officers taking part in the operation was due to the man's criminal record, which included a violation of Germany's weapons laws.
In the apartment in the eastern state of Saxony, police found €10,000 in cash as well as the suspect's alleged accomplice. Police also confiscated an alarm gun and an illegal type of air rifle belonging to the apartment's other inhabitant.
The man managed to steal some 90 tons of train tracks. Police said they first became suspicious that someone was taking the metal from abandoned tracks near the Kodersdorf train station north of Görlitz midway through 2017.
Poverty among the elderly in Germany has been rising for years. Government reports have found that nearly half of Germans in retirement earn less than 800 euros a month as the cost of rent and transport continues to rise.
