Former footballer, commentator and coach Michaël Zandberg said he was stunned on June 24, 2026, after returning from a padel game at Kfar HaMaccabiah and finding a large man, about 1.90 meters tall, waiting by his car with handcuffs and a gun. Zandberg wrote on social media that the man asked whether he was Zandberg, got into the car, told him the vehicle was being confiscated, and pointed to a tow truck outside. He added that he was relieved his children were not with him.
According to Zandberg, the seizure was carried out by a bailiff and stemmed not from deliberate nonpayment, but from two payments that bounced because of a technical glitch in the standing order. He said that when he contacted Colmobil, the financing company through which he leased the car, he was told notices had been sent to an old address, emails had gone to spam, and SMS messages had been sent to a wrong number that he allegedly provided. Zandberg said he never received any notice, by phone, text or email.
He wrote that the case quickly escalated to lawyers, enforcement proceedings, an attachment, and the car’s impoundment. He argued that a large company with multiple contact methods and a customer who had paid reliably for years, this was his third car through them, should not move straight to a process that ended with an armed man at the vehicle and a tow truck ready to take it, over two bounced payments totaling 1,500 shekels.
Zandberg said he was shocked less by the debt than by how easily an ordinary, law-abiding person could end up in an intimidating and humiliating situation without a real chance to understand there was a problem. He said the bailiff behaved humanely and drove him home before the car was loaded, and that he was told the contract allowed enforcement after two unpaid payments without warning. He added that the car was still in a lot and that he was now being asked to pay 20,000 shekels in arrears and expenses to release it, on top of the original 3,000-shekel debt.
