Customs regulate when and how the trunk may be stolen. In Hartkirchen, thieves took a legally risky step too far and there was already contact with the police. But the judiciary is now left out because the thieves then showed remorse that night.
“Under no circumstances will the police be involved; stealing the maypole is a custom and is subject to the respective custom rules. However, if there are acts of violence or significant damage to property, the police should be called in, because then it is no longer a custom” – this is what it says in the maypole theft rules of the Upper Austrian rural youth. In Hartkirchen, the music club has already contacted the police because thieves from a neighboring community had gone too far. Locks picked “They took the lying trunk, which was in a fenced-in company area,” say the chairmen Bernhard Aichinger and Michael Loimayr. The locks that secured the chained, undecorated trunk were also broken. The officials had advised people to try to find the perpetrators themselves – otherwise a complaint about damage to property and trespassing would have gone to court. When and how exactly a maypole can be stolen is regulated slightly differently in each town. There is a maypole map of the Landjugend Oberösterreich on the Internet, in which every club can enter its rules. It is clear everywhere that the tree can only be stolen without damage and on certain days around May 1st and at the end of the month. The trigger is usually done with a snack. Baum was not triggered “After an online posting, the thieves apparently ran out of rice and got in touch,” says Michael Loimayr, deputy chairman, who then spent half the night trying to return it to organize. “We didn’t blow down the tree, the damage was repaired and the thieves are invited to the district music festival in a month – we’ll think of something for them,” said the musicians’ bosses, who are happy that this will happen on April 30th Putting up the maypole in Hartkirchen – without police – works as planned. Until then, the tree will remain well hidden.
source site-12