Wild animals or thieves? No: recruits from the Swiss army. Ida* made a strange discovery when observing, last Friday, the images recorded by a camera equipped with a motion detector installed at the back of her chalet, in Spiez (BE). In the video, we can indeed see three soldiers in camouflage uniforms and armed with assault rifles strolling through the octogenarian’s garden. “We even see one of them going over the fence!”, notes Ida.
The retiree did not feel endangered by this incursion. But she still said she was surprised by the approach: “Does the army have the right to enter private property like this?” An action all the more doubtful, according to Ida, as neither she nor her neighbors had been warned of a potential nighttime military exercise in the surrounding area.
Contacted, the army confirmed that these were indeed recruits stationed in Thun (BE) who were participating in an exercise. During the latter, the soldiers had to move through Spiez without being spotted. However, “to go unnoticed, a group spontaneously decided to climb the garden fence and move onto private property,” explained Mathias Volken, army spokesperson.
According to the man, it was however announced during the briefing preceding the exercise that it was strictly forbidden to enter private land. “It will therefore be evaluated whether this behavior should lead to disciplinary consequences,” indicated the communicator, specifying in passing that “the soldiers are aware of their error and regret it.” As for the lack of communication with the population regarding the exercise: “As it was relatively small and it was neither planned nor authorized to enter private property, we gave up on it.”
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