VW Owner Counts his Blessings

In January, Benjamin Halbe paid a used car salesman 9,500 euros ($12, 204) for a 1999 Volkswagen Golf and hit the jackpot.

But the 21-year-old from Olpe, in western Germany, didn't know that until a few months later when, after checking the previous owner's records, he found that a Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had owned the car. Shortly thereafter, Ratzinger changed his name to Pope Benedict XVI, succeeding the late Pope John Paul II, and sending Halbe on his way to some serious cash.

On May 5, the day of the Acension, Halbe's silver-gray Golf sold for 188,938.88 euros on eBay. The winning bidder was an American online casino, which contacted Halbe minutes later to ask about his bank details.

"I am more than happy that I was able to sell it for such a sum," said Halbe, surrounded by friends, some of whom helped him come up with the plan to auction off the Volkswagen.

More cash passed up

Of course, it could have gone for much more. Had eBay not experienced a server crash 40 minutes before the final bell sounded, the price would have likely continued upward.

"I feel completely deceived," said Helmut Drossman, an ad agency chief from Bavaria who was unable to bid on the car in the final minutes.

"I'm frustrated, because we could have offered significantly more than the final price," said Thorsten Senneke, who bid for a group of investors, according to the news agency dpa.

But a re-sale price of almost 10 times what he paid for is not half-bad either. Halbe, who earns a little bit of money doing his required civil service duty, plans to spend his hard-earned money on a new car, maybe a vacation "and put the rest in a bank."

As for the online casino that won the bid, it will have to be careful not to promise too much in advertising the former Pope mobile. Ratzinger never had a driver's license and, by all accounts, he owned the car for little less than a year.