One of Germany's most storied sports trophies, believed to have been stolen and melted down, has turned up in the champion team's own basement. The large silver dish, which went missing from Füchse Berlin's offices in November, was found stashed in a basement storage area.
The club believes that suspects stole the trophy from its offices and then hid it to retrieve later but decided against doing so because of media attention around the theft. In a statement, the team offered a darkly humorous explanation: "The risk of being caught seemed too high even for the master thieves."
The trophy, valued at around 12,000 euros as of 2014, is engraved with the names of champion teams going back decades. It marks the first German championship in Füchse Berlin's history. For months, investigators suspected the worst. After authorities found a silver bar during a series of raids on addresses in January, a spokesperson for the prosecutor's office told the Sport Bild newspaper that the trophy appeared to have been melted down.
The discovery resolves one mystery but leaves others. The trophy has been taken by police as evidence, meaning the club cannot display it despite recovering it. The league has cancelled the order it made for a replacement, at least restoring that administrative matter to its proper state. How the trophy came to be in the basement, and whether the thieves abandoned their prize there intentionally or through circumstance, remains unclear as the investigation continues.