A surprise for the German police, who stopped the heavyweights on the track. There was a tank on the platform that was going to Romania. The transport company would not be authorized for such transportation, so the cargo was blocked.

After checks, it turned out that it was not an illegal transport of weapons, as the tank was in fact an evacuation vehicle that did not have a turret, but an excavator bucket, German media reported.

In fact, Erich Mocanu, a representative of the AEBS organization, told stiridiaspora.ro that it was actually a snow removal or road cleaning machine.

“It looks like a tank, but it’s not a tank. This is a dump truck to clear the streets. A utility vehicle on a tank body. It has a front body, a track, a rail for pushing snow or sand. He was stopped on Saturday evening, at 10:30 p.m., on the A92 highway as he was heading to Romania. Comes from France. This tank was taken from there and was going to Romania for training. At the first stage, the police discovered that it was not about the license, but about the tonnage, which was too high for the license it has,” he told the quoted source, clarifying that in the meantime everything was clarified and the transport left for Romania.

Currently, the planned delivery route is known: the tank originates from the French army and is to be delivered to the Romanian army as a delivery between NATO partners. However, the transportation is carried out by a private company, which seems strange to the authorities, writes the German press.

Since it was assumed that the transportation was carried out privately, the question appeared in the German press, can private individuals even buy tanks online? A further journalistic investigation by BR24.de proves that it is possible.

There are several ways to buy scrap tanks like the FV102 Striker online. As part of the Light Armored Military Vehicles, it served the British Army as a missile destroyer until the early 2000s.

It is currently being offered to tank fans through an advertising portal for €13,500. For an additional fee, the car can be delivered fully functional, said the offer cited by BR24.de.

On various online platforms, several sellers sell heavy military equipment, such as decommissioned and demilitarized tanks. These are mostly Polish and Czech sites, the cited publication also notes.

For example, a Czech seller offers some old military equipment on the Internet – mostly old Soviet tanks, as well as other military equipment. The Polish website is currently selling a Leopard 1. Export is possible worldwide, but a potential buyer can find out the price of the car only on request, and a complete repaint is also possible, as was the case with the recently sold Marder.

Before purchasing military equipment, it must be demilitarized. This means that both offensive weapons and defensive installations such as smoke cannons must be dismantled or disabled. Since specialized vehicles lose their license to operate after leaving service, a technical inspection is also required.

However, even decommissioned and demilitarized tanks are almost impossible to insure, as insurance companies do not quote Panzer rates. And even if all the requirements were met, tanks in Germany are not allowed to drive on public roads.

However, how the weapons are transported to the respective buyers is explained on one of the pages of the logistics company that provides such transportation, investigated by German journalists. Transportation of such tanks is “no problem” for the supplier. However, the planned “congested” route requires a transit permit, and processing the permit depends on the state, “but does not take more than three weeks.”

In Germany, transit of such “goods” requires an international certificate. According to the Bavarian police, the armored recovery vehicle, which was being transported on the A92 with the intended destination in Romania, appears to be a French model of the “Vulcain” type.