The following is a guest post by German native Cat. She's a real doll, and was kind enough to allow me to post this here. It seems a current case in Germany proves that America's aren't the only sick people in the world...
Special thanks again to CAT
I read something really disturbing a couple of days ago in one of Germany's worst tabloids, but obviously other media picked up on it, too. Here's the link for the Germans of an article in the Saechsische Zeitung from January 18, 2008:
http://www.sz-online.de/nachrichten/artikel.asp?id=1719341
And this is the translation of the article for my English speaking friends.Children offered on the internet - judiciary investigates
Bautzen. In Spreetal near Hoyerswerda, two ethnic Russian emigrants in Germany offered their 2 children on ebay for "rental" for 1000 Euros a day.
The prosecution of Bautzen has initiated proceedings for a preliminary investigation against the mother only, because she is the owner of the email-account, says prosecutor Christopher Gerhardi. Still it is not totally clear yet, that the mother is responsible for the offer. Stating Gerhardi it is also questionable if the elements of an offense for child trafficking are given. For this there would have to be the surrender of the kids in perpetuity. The 11 year old girl and the 13 year old boy were offered in the auction as "well-educated children". They would be missing warmth and affection. But they would offer "an unexhaustible potential of love".
The advertising copy was accompanied by 50 photographs of the life of the children. About 90 customers were interested in the offer, one pressed charges against the parents. Stating prosecutor Gerhardi, the apartment of the couple was searched, but the parents have not been interrogated yet. To the SZ newspaper, the parents Elena and Gregori explained that it was a protest against public authorities.
These would not extend the passports of the family since november 2006. That is why there would be difficulties in every day life. Without valid documents they could not take cash off the bank, they could not license a vehicle or enter into a contract. Even worse, so the father, is the fact that they are not able to visit their relatives abroad. After a long fight without success he wanted to point his problems out to public taking these actions. Gregori explained that the day the offer appeared on ebay (Dec 16th, 2007), he also informed 20 German communication media about his concern. He claims he would have never handed over his children to strangers on ebay. The accusation of offering them for sexual abuse was wrong, he says.
The planned cry for help backfired though. On December 19th, 2007, ten cops came rushing into their house to "save" the kids. Now also the judiciary is investigating.
Now this shit leaves me speechless. No matter how hard things must be for that family and all that, but there is not ONE reason to put up an offer like that on ebay. If they wanted attention, they could have done a lot of other things, since every idiot can get his 15 minutes on tv these days. I seriously doubt that these two did not intend to hand over their kids as long as the price was right. All their explanations sound to me like one big excuse cause they were caught.
Even if they really intended to just get the attention of the media, they should be bitch-slapped for utter stupidity choosing that way.
They put it up on ebay, as a serious offer, put a price in and added 50 pictures of the kids, among them pictures in bathing suite. C'mon, no one is THAT stupid to not be serious about an offer like that.
What I also hope is that the cops and the prosecutor will take a very close look at the people looking at the auction and actually bidding on it. It is scary that out of 90 people only one told the police about the auction.
What pisses me off the most though is that the social services left the kids with the parents since they "could not see a threat right there"...
So you are overworked with your kids and they don't get enough loving from you and not enough attention - you had to have them. Boohooo, fucking deal with it. But you rather have some stranger taking care of your children for money. I don't even want to imagine what kind of attention the two kids would have gotten. I feel overworked, too sometimes, still that would not make me offer my precious child on ebay for 1000 Euros a day. That is some sick shit.
Special thanks again to CAT
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