A distraught German man took action after his wife left him by dividing the communal property in an equitable fashion — by sawing them in half. The story broke after someone with the username, “Der Juli,” posted a YouTube video of a sawing of household belongings in half with electric hand tools.
The video, which was posted on June 16, has gone mega-viral with more than 4 million views and still climbing. The video opens with a sentence written in German, which translates as, “Thank you for 12 beautiful years, Laura. You earned half.” The remainder of the 95 second video were snippets of a man cutting different objects with laser precision.
Metro UK identified the jilted German as a man named Martin, who told a reporter, “My wife left me after 12 years of marriage to be with a friend.” Martin further revealed that he cut their belongings and sent her half and put the remaining halves on eBay. He didn’t expect the act to go viral, “Now it’s everywhere on the Internet, it’s crazy.”
Among the items seen divided in the video were furniture, several expensive technology items, and culminating with a man taking a hand saw to a car. Among the items destroyed were well-recognized products including an iPhone 5, Macbook Pro laptop, and a Corsa Opel, which is a German automobile.
The items chopped in the video and several others are now up for auction on Ebay Germany. Some of the items seem to have personal meaning including the marital bed and a teddy bear. Bids range from a low of 15 EUR ($17 USD) for the couple’s bed to over 1,200 EUR ($1,360 USD). At current bid prices, the man would make about $2,500 USD.
What began as an attempt for a heartbroken man to make a statement to his wife has become a global spectacle. There is no statement from Laura and her half of the story remains unknown.
