‘Rubbish criminal’ sentenced to two days in Swiss prison

A man in the Swiss city of Biel/Bienne has been sentenced to two days in prison for failing to pay a fine for breaking municipal garbage laws after rubbish detectives uncovered his crime.

Published: 26 September 2018 19:56 CEST

'Rubbish criminal' sentenced to two days in Swiss prison

File photo: Depositphotos

The 33-year-old committed the offence back in November 2017 when he put a bag of rubbish out on the street on the wrong day and also failed to attach a municipal tax sticker to the bag.

These tax stickers are one of the ways local authorities around Switzerland have of charging residents for garbage disposal.

But the man in Biel/Bienne did not count on being found out by the two rubbish detectives who regularly patrol the city, according to Swiss news site 20 Minuten.

They were able to identify the culprit and he was fined 150 Swiss francs (€130). However, the fine was never paid and state prosecutors have now ruled he must spend two days in prison for failing to pay the fine.

It is unclear whether he will actually do the time, however, as his whereabouts are currently unknown.

Authorities in the city said 209 people in the city were slapped with rubbish fines last year, with another 600 people receiving warnings.

The city is also ready to fend off excuses about rubbish infractions.

“There are always rubbish delinquents who say someone else stuck something in their garbage bag, which is why we always look right in the middle of the bag,” a city spokesperson told 20 Minuten.

Two victims suffered serious wounds, police said. The attacker was also in hospital being treated for injuries that investigators said were self-inflicted.

The man was “believed to be of foreign origin” and was aged about 40, police said in a statement which added that he was thought to have acted alone.

All of the injured remained hospitalised late Wednesday.

Armed with “sharpened or pointed” metal weapons, the man first lashed out at a passer-by at the railway station in the town of 12,000 people in the Aargau canton, about 60 kilometres (38 miles) west of Zurich, police said.

He then wounded several people seemingly at random before entering a house, police added.

Among those attacked were two teachers from the Zofingen cantonal school, the institution’s director, Patrick Strossler, told 20minuten.ch news website.

The Aargauer Zeitung newspaper quoted one man as saying his pregnant wife had been among those attacked. She was cut in the face but her life was not threatened.

After two hours of negotiations with a specialised team, the man was arrested in the house, police said. The suspect had injured himself and was taken to hospital, said Bernhard Graser, a police spokesman.

Graser told the Zofinger Tagblatt newspaper that the attacker’s injuries were self-inflicted.

Police have called for witnesses to share video or photos that may be useful for their investigation.

Images shown by Aargauer Zeitung showed a large deployment of police and emergency vehicles. The security forces had assault rifles and bullet-proof vests.

A police helicopter landed on a nearby sports field, causing the local youth football team to cut short a training session, the newspaper said.