Trophy turns up in German team’s own basement after being reported stolen
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $1.44 a week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $5.77 plus GST every four weeks. After 52 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
BERLIN (AP) — One of Germany’s most storied sports trophies was believed to have been stolen and melted down. Now it’s turned up in the champion team’s own basement.
A four-month saga took an unusual turn Monday when Germany’s champion men’s handball team Fuechse Berlin reported that the large silver dish which went missing from its offices in November had been found stashed in a basement storage area.
The club believes that suspects stole the trophy from its offices then hid it to retrieve later, but decided against doing so because of media attention around the theft.
“The risk of being caught seemed too high even for the master thieves,” the club said in a statement Monday.
The trophy, which was valued at around 12,000 euros ($13,900) as of 2014, was engraved with the names of champion teams going back decades and had seemed lost.
After authorities found a silver bar during a series of raids on addresses in January, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office told the Sport Bild newspaper that the suspicion was the trophy had been melted down. The league has canceled the order it made for a replacement, German agency dpa reported.
Handball is one of the most popular sports in Germany and northern Europe, and the men’s league is widely shown on TV.
Fuechse Berlin won’t get to hold the trophy again for a while longer, though. The club says it’s been taken by the police as evidence.
___
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports