German military says thousands of rounds of ammunition were stolen from parked vehicle last week
By Nadine Schmidt, Max Saltman, CNN
(CNN) — The German Defense Ministry confirmed Tuesday that “a shipment of thousands of rounds of ammunition” bound for the armed forces was stolen from a civilian contractor’s trailer last week.
A spokesperson told CNN that the ammunition was stolen “from the trailer of the civilian carrier’s transport vehicle, which had been parked overnight” between November 24 and 25.
On November 28, the military discovered that the shipment was missing approximately 20,000 rounds of ammunition, the spokesperson said, without providing further details.
The military is investigating the theft with the help of local police, the German Armed Forces said in a statement sent to CNN.
A Defense Ministry spokesperson told German magazine Der Spiegel on Tuesday that the military is taking the theft “very seriously.”
“This kind of ammunition must not fall into the wrong hands,” the spokesperson said.
Other ammunition losses have occurred in Germany this year, though none on the scale of last week’s heist. German public broadcaster ARD reported in August that around 90 rounds of ammunition were lost from a police station in Saxony-Anhalt.
The theft comes just as Germany is attempting to beef up its armed forces after years of sluggish investment and cultural discomfort with the country’s military. A week before the heist, Germany’s coalition government put forward a bill to grow the military’s staffing to 260,000 soldiers, up from around 180,000 currently, in addition to an extra 200,000 reservists, by 2035.
The militaristic push comes as Germany remains a top ammo supplier for Ukraine. In late August, German manufacturer Rheinmetall opened what it claims is Europe’s largest ammunition factory to keep up with demand.
The-CNN-Wire
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