Police scams in South Eastern Germany

[Stephen T]

Government or personal profit, that was a stupid scam. Western Germany used to be over this kind of baseness.

 

[Brymom02]

"You say they were in their right." I just said they were maybe within their rights. I still think it was an assholish move to do towards a foreigner not knowing the legal limitations. Again, you can buy self defensive spray, but some of them has to be labeled "against dogs".

But yeah, that is how it works in at least Northern Europe. All branches are giving a particular amount of money they are supposed to get through fines in a year. If they come up short, they will probably get really anal about these sorts of things. You obviously caught them (or they "caught" you) at a bad time.

The point is that this was not money for themselves to their own pocket, but rather just getting funds for the government. Still, it was not a very silly and anal thing to force money out of an ordinary civilian over something small like this.

 

[moo goo gai pan]

They were just looking for money. I had an argument with the local Consul of Germany : his only answer was that police officers make German people pay

 

[Liberal Nemesis]

I actually looked a little bit into this because I got fascinated by it. It seem that you are allowed to have self defensive spray for use against animals (i.e dogs, which is why a lot of these sprays are labeled anti-dog). Against people, it seems it needs some sort of seal of approval. So, if you said it was for protection against animals, I am not sure if they could have taken them or fined you.

The fact that they actually gave you a receipt shows that they were maybe within their rights. I don't know.. kinda hard one. There are a lot of technicalities. Hard to say since I don't have all the facts. ACOAB (all customs officials are bastards).

At any rate, you may feel a little better reading this story

http://www.ad-hoc-news.de/grenzschu...-besprueht--/de/Regional/Brandenburg/20461169

Here is an article, if you read German

http://deutschlandpolitik.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/legale-waffen-zur-selbstverteidigung/

 

[Lightning From the East]

Please, send me an adress and I will.

The fact is that they reproached me there was no agreement from the BKA on my gas sprays. On the other hand, they seemed to be willing to make money at any condition. I found very strange that they pushed me to an ATM although they made a "Quittung" attesting they had taken money.

 

[Reiki Chick]

This is one really strange story. Especially since I myself often buy self defensive spray in Germany. Little spraycans that are labelled Reizgas. I buy them in Germany since I can't get them where I live. I doubt they are illegal to possess in Germany for this reason.

Well, I guess the #2 was merely a joke, however I'd like to point out that German car drivers and drivers of German cars in general are not at fault for some corrupt ZollBeamten. If you still have your receipt for the ticket I'd send it down to the local newspaper to wherever it was you were crossing.

 

[Jeniiee]

verybody think (at least I was the first one to believe) that German law enforcement units were the most civilized or maybe a model for other countries. Do not think about it any longer : they practice police scams for theprofit of the German government and since everything is more expensive in Germany, the amount of money to be exrtorted was higher.

I was driving back from Eastern Europe and had just passed the border westward a few kilometers after Salzburg as a custom vehicle passed a truck behind me showing lights saying "bitte folgen" then they passed me and and me me stop to search the vehicle. I do not know about the legality of these searches after which everything is upside down in the car. Then the inspector (more than 6 ft high) used the dust stuck on the window of my car to write a 250 meaning he wanted 250