A quick burst of speed, 10 km/h over the limit, a quiet village, and a driver who loses his temper: on paper, the story could have boiled down to a simple radar ticket. In March 2026, on a road in northeast Switzerland, a motorist refused to accept the sanction looming after a modest speeding violation.
Behind the wheel of a Jeep in the village of Altishausen, in the canton of Thurgau, the 53-year-old man was clocked at 60 km/h in a 50 km/h zone, facing a fine of about CHF 120 (roughly €120). According to the penal order cited by local media, he chose to “get revenge” by returning to destroy the device with a forklift, turning a minor fine into a bill north of CHF 8,000, dramatically changing the scale of the affair.
Speeding Ticket, He Destroys a Radar with a Forklift
The events date back to March 2026. The motorist was driving his Jeep through the village of Altishausen when an automatic radar recorded him at 60 km/h in a 50 km/h zone. For this 10 km/h over the limit in a built-up area, he faced a fine of around CHF 120, a common penalty for this type of stretch.
According to the penal order cited by regional press, the man didn’t simply wait for the ticket to arrive. After being flashed, he turned around, immediately returned to his nearby workplace, and climbed aboard a forklift. He then came back to the scene, facing the control cabin. “With the forks deployed, he rammed the measurement device and toppled it without hesitation,” reports the Thurgauer Zeitung. The device was rendered inoperative in moments, but this destruction would quickly become central to the case.
From CHF 120 to CHF 8,129: how much does a smashed radar cost
This act earned him a full criminal proceeding. According to the available details, the man in his fifties was sentenced in the canton of Thurgau to a monetary penalty with a suspended sentence, in addition to a CHF 3,000 fine (a little more than €3,000). Procedural costs of CHF 1,713 (about €1,750) were also charged, on top of the police bill for radar damage, pegged at CHF 3,416 (around €3,400).
- Initial fine that could have been avoided: about CHF 120 (≈ $132)
- Imposed fine: CHF 3,000 (≈ $3,300)
- Procedural costs: CHF 1,713 (≈ $1,870)
- Radar damages: CHF 3,416 (≈ $3,740)
- Total due: CHF 8,129 (≈ $8,940)
Altogether, the motorist ends up with a bill of CHF 8,129, nearly CHF 8,000 more than the speeding fine originally would have been. This kind of reaction isn’t unique to Switzerland: in France as well, destructions or arsons of radar booths are regularly pursued. Damaging an automatic radar there falls under the destruction of public property, punishable by up to five years in prison and fines up to €75,000, in addition to reimbursing the device, which shows that, on both sides of the border, authorities treat these cases with far greater severity than a simple speeding ticket.
