New Delhi, March 24 -- One of Germany's most storied sports trophies was believed to have been stolen and melted down. Now it's turned up in the champion team's own basement.

A four-month saga took an unusual turn Monday when Germany's champion men's handball team Fuechse Berlin reported that the large silver dish which went missing from its offices in November had been found stashed in a basement storage area.

The club believes that suspects stole the trophy from its offices then hid it to retrieve later, but decided against doing so because of media attention around the theft.

"The risk of being caught seemed too high even for the master thieves," the club said in a statement Monday.

The trophy, which was valued at around 12,000 eur...