Police officer in Rhineland-Palatinate no longer a civil servant due to cheese theft on duty
He had therefore worked at a police highway station. After a traffic accident involving a truck loaded with Cheddar cheese that had overturned, he was supposed to secure the scene. However, the man is said to have stolen nine packages, each weighing 20 kilograms, worth a total of 554 Euro in cheese.
He was driven to the site of the damaged container in a police bus and asked a worker from a recovery company to give him several undamaged cheese packages, according to the court. He took some of the packages to the station. The court could not determine where the rest of the cheese was. It was assumed that the policeman had kept it.
After the conclusion of the criminal proceedings, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate brought a disciplinary action against the man. The Administrative Court of Trier removed him from duty. He appealed against this before the Higher Administrative Court. He stated that the cheese was practically worthless by then because the cooling chain had been interrupted by the accident. He wanted to save it from safe destruction and did not eat Cheddar cheese himself.
However, the Higher Administrative Court dismissed his appeal. For a civil servant who commits a theft while in uniform and carrying his service weapon during duty hours, the general public and the employer cannot understand - and neither can they.
- Despite being a policeman and serving in Rhineland-Palatinate's police highway station, he was involved in an incident of cheese theft.
- The alleged theft occurred at the scene of a truck accident in Koblenz, where the policeman was supposed to secure the Cheddar cheese.
- The court couldn't find the remaining cheese, leading to assumptions that the civil servant had kept it for himself.
- The Higher Administrative Court, in weighing the case, noted that a civil servant in uniform and on duty committing a theft of any kind, especially cheese, is unacceptable to both the public and his employer.
