For inflicting significant property damage and jeopardizing people's lives, the angry contractor now faces a substantial punishment and possible incarceration.
When a developer "drew first blood" by failing to pay a 47-year-old German construction worker 60,000 euros ($71,233) in invoices, the latter went full-on "Excavator Rambo" as local media have dubbed him, at a residential complex he had helped to build for his former employer.
The worker, identified only as Matija P., climbed into his Volvo excavator and began taking down balconies and shattering glass on the building, which was about to welcome its first tenants. They'll have to wait a while while the developer repairs damages totaling 500,000 euros ($593,350).
Matija's future is likewise bleak; he faces penalties and maybe prison time for causing serious damage to the structure. He began demolishing garages near the apartment complex, adding to his list of troubles. Fortunately, by the time Matija's excavator broke down, none of the gas tanks in them had burst. He may have been facing even more serious accusations if he hadn't done so (if he even survived such an ordeal).
The unhappy worker simply drove away in his car after his demolition spree came to an abrupt halt. Despite this, he did not go into hiding and instead went to a police station to give himself in. After the developer, Ingo Fangerow, delayed 1.5 percent of his money for the task, he took matters into his own hands, he explained. The developer claims to have paid all owed, claiming that the price was reduced by 60,000 euros owing to "individual defects" in the building.
This isn't the first time an unpaid construction worker has gone on a destructive rampage. After his employer failed to pay him for his services, Daniel Neagu, 31, from Romania, demolished five houses in Buntingford, England, worth £4 million ($5.5 million). A similar scenario occurred not long ago, in June 2021, when a builder decided to "undo" the work he had done on a £540,000 house following a payment dispute with the owner. He tore off the roof of the structure, destroying the neighboring garden in the process.
