Customs officers of the Kontrolleinheit Verkehrswege, the mobile traffic control unit of the Heilbronn main customs office, stopped a car with Czech plates on the A6 and directed its 29-year-old driver to the Eichhäuser Hof rest area for a check.[1] Asked at the start of the check about goods that had to be declared or were banned, the man told the officers about four packets of cigarettes with Czech tax stamps, which were in order, a knife with a blade springing out of the side, and marijuana.[1] The officers seized just under three grams of marijuana from him.[1]

When they then searched the car, they found a second knife with a 9.5-centimetre blade that shoots out forwards, a metal knuckleduster and four throwing knives in the glove compartment and in a bag on the passenger seat.[1] Because he had illegally brought the marijuana and the banned weapons into the country, customs officers opened a criminal investigation against him at the scene and seized the items as evidence.[1] A roadside rapid drug test gave indications that he had been under the influence of intoxicants at the time of the check, so the customs officers called the Weinsberg traffic police inspectorate, which took charge of him.[1]

The criminal investigation was still ongoing when the report was published.[1] The officials’ own account and the local report described the same stop near Bad Rappenau.[2] The photo published with the customs statement shows the weapons and marijuana seized in the check.[3]