In the basement of Czechoslovak Television, I discovered an armed response unit
Stáhnout obrázek
David Aust Vedral was born on 10 February 1968 in Prague. He grew up with his mother Václava Fabiánková (Austová) and his stepfather; the family was critical of the communist regime. At school he had repeated conflicts with the school authorities, and he left primary school for boarding school and an apprenticeship. At the age of seventeen he became a father. He worked as a woodcutter, but due to health problems he left and joined Czechoslovak Bus Transport as a driver´s assistant and later as a driver. In the late 1980s, he failed the political checks required for travel to the West after publicly criticising how National Security Corps handled demonstrations. On the recommendation of Hugo Markes, he joined Czechoslovak Television as a driver just before November 1989. In November 1989, he was actively involved in the anti-regime resistance at Czechoslovak Television, which took place in the garages of the transmission trucks. He took part in providing equipment for broadcasting at the demonstrations on Wenceslas Square and Letná, drove actors to the broadcast garages, and distributed leaflets. He discovered a prepared armed unit of National Security Corps in the premises of the Czechoslovak Television and passed on the information. He slept at the TV building and did whatever was necessary at the expense of sleep and his family. After 1989, he worked at Czechoslovak TV as a prop man, then moved to the Phoenix security agency and worked as a bodyguard. In 2006, during a live broadcast of Václav Moravec‘s Questions in Plzeň, he witnessed a bomb threat in the theatre and secured the suspicious package until the bomb unit arrived. He worked as a bodyguard and headed a specialized security service. In 2025, he lived in Votice.
