For 5000 euros

Luxury car dealer hires brutal bill collector

A punctured tire blew the lid off a Wild West story involving fraud and drugs in the Innviertel region. Two men came to blows over damage to a luxury car. Things got completely out of hand and took increasingly strange turns.

It was a ruined Audi - tires slashed, windshield smashed, brake fluid spilled in the car - that blew the lid off a Wild West story in the Mattighofen area. The car belonged to a local Romanian car fanatic who had borrowed an expensive Mercedes from a shady luxury car rental company for a weekend and badly damaged it. However, the 24-year-old car dealer was left with 20,000 euros worth of damage because the Romanian didn't pay.

No contracts, no insurance
As there were no proper contracts, the car damage could not be settled by the insurance company, so the Austrian began to threaten the debtor - even with a firearm. But the Romanian stood firm and because all those involved had criminal records, no charges were brought.

So the car dealer hired a Syrian (29) from Salzburg with a criminal record as a brutal bill collector. The Romanian didn't pay, but went to the police because his family was also directly threatened and wanted money from the insurance company for the ruined Audi.

Drugs in the freezer
The police also found cocaine in the car dealer's freezer, and so a drug ring with dealers and customers in Salzburg was uncovered. In short: how a demolished car led to four arrests.