Cop claims sauna call-out led to new illness

The police officer from southern Germany claims he has suffered symptoms including vertigo, nausea and forgetfulness since he went into the sauna in Bavaria in 2010, the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Wednesday.

He was working the late shift when he got a call that a man was filming naked people with mini cameras at the sauna in Erding. He did find cameras in a locker.

It was minus 8C outside and the officer was well wrapped up when he entered the sauna. He had to spend longer than expected there as the peeping tom had disappeared and their locker had to be searched, the court was told.

He took his case to the civil court in Munich on Tuesday, but the judge refused his bid to get “temperature shock” legally recognized and link the sauna incident to his symptoms.

The officer’s lawyer Uwe Petrunky told the court the 52-year-old had suffered symptoms including damage to his ears since going into the sauna on a December night.

A few days later he told his doctor that when he went back outside to his car he was overcome with nausea and dizziness.

A police doctor confirmed he had damaged his ears but could not put it down to “temperature shock”.

The court heard that the officer had hardly been ill in the previous ten years, according to the newspaper. He had to convince the judge that there was a high probability his illness was linked to the sauna.

But the judge told the court that the term did not seem to exist either on the internet or in medical books. Rejecting his claim, she said: “I can’t find this term anywhere.”

The Local/tsb