Thursday, November 21, 2024
Police officers in Hradec Králové were left stunned after a local man surrendered a pink Soviet T-34 tank and a self-propelled gun as part of the country’s weapon amnesty.
“When we filmed a video on gun amnesty and said with exaggeration that [we will accept even a] tank, we didn’t expect it to inspire the people [to do so]. We present some of surrendered [items]: an SD-100 artillery and a T-34-85 tank,” the police said on its Facebook page.
But a man from Hradec Kralove region did confess to the police that he owned a Soviet T-34/85 tank and an SD-100 self-propelled artillery gun, which was made in the Czech Republic in accordance with the Soviet designs.
The unnamed collector of historic weaponry has been in possession of the hardware since the 1990s. He believed he owned the tank and the artillery platform legally, but wasn’t sure if they had been properly deactivated.
The police said that the menacing guns were harmless but still found some inconsistencies in their deactivation with the current rules. The man was given time to fix those issues so that he could keep the military vehicles in his garage.
No explanation has been provided as to why the tank was pink.
The T-34-85 tank was produced in Czechoslovakia between 1952 and 1958; a total of 3,185 tanks were produced in the republic, and some of them still serve in some African countries.
The Czech weapon amnesty began in late January and will last till the end of July. It’s aimed at legalizing the arms that people possess without the required papers.
But amnesty documents can only be obtained for pieces that aren’t known to have been used to commit crimes.
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