For almost twenty years, Horst E. (name changed) regular requests from the “ARD ZDF Deutschlandradio Contribution Service” – formerly the fee collection center – to pay broadcasting fees for his parents’ place of residence. However, the place of residence no longer exists. Horst E. therefore fights a nerve-wracking battle with the “Contribution Service” for overpaid broadcasting fees.
The situation is said to have escalated in early December last year. Horst E. is said to have threatened an employee of an external service provider who processes complaints on behalf of the “Post Service” on the phone: “I’ll go on a killing spree with you with a Kalashnikov.” Horst E. was now sitting before a criminal court at the Munich district court.
What happened to him is an “incredible story,” said the 59-year-old and began his description. Judge Josef Bonkamp let E. speak. In 1993, according to the father, he “officially” deregistered from the authorities at his parents’ place of residence. In the meantime, the household had even been dissolved. In 2000 he moved to Munich with his family. And since 2004 or 2005, every two or three years, he has repeatedly received requests for payment of 1,300 to 1,400 euros for his parents’ household from the “Contribution Service”.
According to E., he pays the amount every time because the bailiff threatens to make an entry in the debtor register. In order to prove that his parents’ residence no longer exists and that he himself does not have a second home at their former address, he submitted documents, including his father’s death certificate and an extract from the land register – all without success. “I don’t know how to get out of this number,” said E.
After the phone call, the police force was at the door
In the early afternoon of December 7, 2021, the 59-year-old once again called the call center that processes customer inquiries on behalf of the “Post Service”. According to E., an “extremely unfriendly lady” reported who pretended not to be responsible. Because she wanted to end the conversation, he asked, among other things, whether you first had to go on a killing spree with a Kalashnikov in order to be heard. He vehemently denied that he had explicitly threatened to go on a rampage with an assault rifle: “It wasn’t a threat.”
The call center employee called the police after the call. A few days after the conversation, Horst E. said he looked “into five or six gun barrels of hooded men” in front of his apartment door. It was a police task force. The operation was “extremely vehement,” a “huge shock,” the 59-year-old recalled. The images kept coming up for him and his family.
During the interrogation, the call center employee could not remember exactly whether Horst E. had specifically threatened to go on a killing spree. “One should go on a killing spree with you, with a Kalashnikov – that was roughly the wording,” said the 46-year-old. Since the witness could only vaguely remember, Es defender, attorney Adam Ahmet, suggested that the case be dropped. Even the representative of the public prosecutor’s office found that “in view of the history” one could be lenient in the case, but that the proceedings should only be closed under certain conditions.
Judge Bonkamp suggested paying a sum of money to a charitable organization. That would take the matter off the table. Horst E. agreed and will transfer 500 euros to an association that supports the Hauner Children’s Hospital. According to Es, it is still unclear whether the “Contribution Service” of ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio will no longer charge him for his parents’ residence in the future.