Dangerous threat in neighbour dispute: €12,000 fine in Feldkirch
A 25-year neighbour dispute in Vorarlberg ended at Feldkirch Regional Court with a conviction for dangerous threat and an immediately payable fine of €4,000.
Ammunition box at fence, death threat in court: verdict in Vorarlberg neighbour feud
A neighbour dispute that has been smouldering for 25 years in Vorarlberg was heard on Thursday at Feldkirch Regional Court. As Google News AT — Crime (de) reports, the trial against a 54-year-old firearms enthusiast ended with a conviction for dangerous threat.
At the centre of the case is an incident from late March: an empty ammunition box for a Magnum 357 revolver lay at the disputed boundary fence between the two parties' properties. When the 57-year-old neighbour confronted the defendant at the chain-link fence the following day, the latter is said to have threatened him: "You won't live to see next spring." The threatened party immediately filed a police report.
Box as scrap paper – judge unimpressed
In court, the 54-year-old presented himself calmly. He had simply repurposed the ammunition box as a notepad for his fence construction: "I had been shooting with colleagues a few days before, and the box just happened to be lying on the workbench." The private party's representative was sceptical: "Didn't you have a normal piece of paper?" The defendant merely shrugged his shoulders.
Judge Martin Mitteregger rejected this explanation. "That business with the scrap paper was a nice try, but not credible," he stated. The message at the property boundary had been unmistakable: "I have a weapon, here is the packaging." It was made worse by the fact that the defendant had admitted to police that he wanted to "annoy the neighbour a bit."
Years-long skirmish over house number and fence
The actual trigger of the latest conflict is a house number that one man removes and the other screws back on again. Both men claim ownership of the fence post in question. Apart from this point of contention, the defendant emphasised that he got on well with all other neighbours – he acted as an unofficial caretaker of the settlement and even possessed several flat keys. Only with the "gentleman administrator" had there been problems for years.
Conviction: €4,000 immediately payable
The court sentenced the 54-year-old to a fine of €12,000, part suspended, with €4,000 immediately payable. Judge Mitteregger noted: "Had you come clean, diversion would have been an option."
The defendant requested time to consider, and the prosecutor made no statement. The verdict is therefore not yet final – in the worst case, the fence dispute will go to the next round.
Source: Google News AT — Crime (de)