Armed and dangerous (to exhibitors) gunmen raided IFA Berlin and took 170 televisions, 140 MP3 music players, 21 mobile phones and 57 DVD recorders.
Of course, these were just the German customs officials, the Zoll.
In their biggest operation ever (complete with a pin wall noting the status of their 69 court orders), German customs and Federal police truly surprised IFA exhibitors (who should have known better after CeBIT.)
Germany is known as an “easy” place to enact a court order protecting copyright and intellectual property. And a public trade show is a good place to send a message. Director of IFA, Jens Heithecker, says, "The law is the law...we feel that some innocent exhibitors have unfortunately been affected without reason...We regret the way the operation was carried out and believe it would have been possible to perform it with a much more sensitive approach."