A 45-year-old has to go to court because of a brazen million-dollar coup: He is said to have blown away from an employee of a vintage car dealership on a test drive in a million-dollar Ferrari.
Neuss – A good two years after the spectacular theft of a Ferrari costing more than two million euros, the alleged thief will have to answer to court next Wednesday in Neuss.
The well-known 45-year-old was extradited to the German judiciary after serving a prison sentence in France. The public prosecutor’s office accuses him of a particularly serious case of theft.
He is said to have taken a test drive with a Ferrari offered for 2.35 million euros in Düsseldorf in May 2019 as a supposed prospective buyer. When there was supposed to be a driver change in neighboring Neuss and the seller got out, the 45-year-old is said to have accelerated and raced off in the 400-horsepower vehicle, while the perplexed seller stayed on the side of the road.
The Ferrari was seized after the fact in Grevenbroich on the Lower Rhine. Witnesses had seen the rare red car driven into a garage there.
Traces of the thief could be secured in the car – including fingerprints. In addition, the alleged perpetrator was photographed shortly before the test drive at a Düsseldorf classic car dealership.
The widespread international coverage of the spectacular coup had led to information from France, where a newspaper reader tipped the 45-year-old. According to the sales advertisement, the first owner of the rare Ferrari 288 GTO, built in 1985, is ex-Formula 1 driver Eddie Irvine. dpa
