When the 57-year-old called his ex-girlfriend late at four o’clock in the morning and pretended that he had just had a serious accident and urgently needed help, it was a crazy idea with serious consequences. With around 2.1 per thousand alcohol in his blood, he certainly hadn’t thought much about what he was doing and the consequences. However, the ex-girlfriend took the call seriously and called 112 – which led to a large-scale deployment of the police and fire brigade. Even a helicopter flew off to find the man who had allegedly had an accident in his car – who was sleeping off his intoxication in the meantime. The man has now been fined 900 euros for misusing an emergency number. In addition, he will probably have to pay the cost of the operation, another 6,000 to 7,000 euros.
St. Nicholas Day 2020 will linger on the defendant for a long time. The Weilheimer had visited his brother in Oberding every day. People celebrated, played sheep’s head and drank a number of beers and schnapps until around three in the morning, as the 57-year-old reported in court. Then he lay down on the couch to sleep. What ridden him, around four o’clock, still awake to call his ex-girlfriend, he no longer knows.
It wasn’t just a phone call that first woke the 45-year-old woman and then plunged her into great worry. In front of the district court, she described that in two-way phone calls of different lengths she had heard that he had “thrown his car into the forest”, that his foot was trapped after the accident, the door could no longer be opened and his passenger did not move more. He is not even sure whether he is still “puffing”. He groaned as if he were in pain and he also seemed drunk. After asking several times, he said he was at the Ammersee near Herrsching.
The woman got up and woke a friend who was sleeping on the couch in her apartment. In his presence, she called her ex again. Together they then came to the conclusion to make the emergency call. “You don’t joke with something like that,” said the 45-year-old, “and I was worried.” Especially since she had lost her sister in an accident. She would have reproached her forever if something had actually happened.
The call to 112 triggered a large-scale operation: ten police vehicles from Starnberg and Herrsching, fire brigades with several vehicles and a helicopter went to look for the defendant, who no longer answered the phone. In the meantime he was slumbering on his brother’s couch in Oberding until the doorbell rang at 6.30 a.m. The police had found him via cell phone location.
The defense attorney argued that his client was so drunk that he did not know what he was doing. In addition, the 45-year-old ex-girlfriend and her acquaintances reacted wrongly. The woman knew that the defendant would never drive a car drunk. In the end, the lawyer even suggested that the woman herself might have been drunk or consumed drugs – her acquaintance, who was her guest, had a relevant criminal record. The witness widely dismissed such allegations.
Judge Michaela Wawerla advised the defendant to withdraw the objection. There would never be an acquittal and the prosecution would not agree to the case being closed. The lawyer then limited the objection to the daily rate. Then even the public prosecutor came to meet the defendant, who has corona-related debts. All those involved agreed to the proposal to reduce the daily rate from 50 to 30 euros.
– .
