Car stopped by the police

I'm still flabbergasted at what happened.

Yesterday morning at 9:30am I was driving north through Weiner Platz on my way to the band practise room. I had to stop at the traffic lights where the No.19 Straßenbahn crosses just before Max Weber Platz and I noticed a police car right behind me. When the lights went green I saw them flash me once and turn on their STOP light. I pulled over a bit quicker than they were expecting and did my old trick of having my driver's license and car registration details, getting out of my car and standing at the police driver's door before they had a chance to get out. Then always, always, always avoiding speaking German (this puts them on the back foot) and being extremely polite and asking as they got out of the car, "Good morning officers. What seems to be the problem?".

After some to-ing and fro-ing they gave the reason why they stopped me. They had sat behind me at the lights debating, né arguing over which team my little hanging football shirt in my back window represented. "England" I told them. "The national team?". "Yes!". Then they wished me a good day and gave my papers back.

...and how much tax am I payin' for this fuckin' service???

It may seem like a waste of time and taxpayers' money but it shows that policepeople are people too. It could have been worse...

I would have cited you for being such a cocky little pecker. I'm sure there is something in the law against that

There's fuck all in the law about that. Remember, they are public servants, serving me (the public) and I am paying for them... and they know this. A friend of mine here is a top Bavarian judge, and he told me I should have taken their numbers and reported them.

Aw, I think it's kind of sweet. The cops at home were never that cool. Course I come from a town with Jethro E. Colbane type cops.

I got stopped by the cops for my phone number once!

got stopped by the busies a while back. didnt have id but they accepted my british video club memb card and a 2nd class stamp with the queens head on it as proof that i was not an asylum seeker/illegal immigrant etc...

I wouldn't have seen that as a reason to get antagonistic. I'd bet most all cops are there and doing their job in the worst situations; it's no skin off my neck if they have a little fun on my nickle during downtimes.



As Jeeves said, it could be worse.

I once got stopped by a cop somewhere in southern Oregon. He told me he had seen the Alberta licence plate (it was a rental car from Alberta), and had always wanted to chat with an Albertan. When he found out that we were German, he got all excited, because he had never spoken to a German before. Then he insisted on escorting us to some local State Park - which we had never intended to see, and which turned out to be a rather pathetic place, but he just wouldn't take "no" for an answer.

I think it's sweet, Sin. Nice to see cops can have a bit fun at work too. Humour them...

Had you been in the States, jumping out of the car before the cops had the chance to get out of theirs, would be an ultra-stupid move. Never get out of your car!! 1) if you are female, this may not be a cop but someone impersonating a cop, 2) the cop could be trigger happy and jumping out of the car could be seen as an aggressive move and 3) always put your hands on the steering wheel where the cops can see you. Rifling around under the seat or the glove box could also mean you are looking for the gun you put there yesterday for exactly this occasion. OK, OK so we're in Toytown and none of this is too likely, but just tips for when you are in the States.

Last time I was stopped, the two polizei were totally hot looking men, spoke English and we admiring my car - which had just been washed and waxed. Still got a ticket for crossing a solid line in the middle of the road.

We were stopped by police last night at a road block (on our way from Gruenwald to Sendling around 2am) for an alcohol check. Nothing much happened, but it was the first time I've been stopped. The policeman just flashed a torch around the car and didn't even check our ID, but leaned in close (probably to smell), and asked if we'd drunk any alcohol, then let us go.

Probably not interesting for any of you to read, just thought I'd post about it Now you know what to expect around the Wies'n time, as there are lots of random car checks for drunk drivers.

Anyone else had a similar/different/worse/strange experience?

I have a story...

Friend of mine gets pulled over one night in Stuttgart.. He says it was a Saturday night and something like 3 in the morning.

They ask for papers, licence registration and stuff. Then they ask him if he has been drinking.. He says no. They make the test, he is clean..

Everything is normal up to this point..

Then the cop points the torch light suddenly directly into his eyes and observes how fast his eye reaction is. This is supposed to be the drug test.. His eye-reaction is slow. So they tell him to step out of the car, go to the police van and pee in a plactic glass so they can make the drug test. He says I just took a piss leaving the disco and I haven't been drinking so I can not piss right now. The cops say there is some water in the van. He is going to have to drink until he can pee again, otherwise they will take him to the hospital for a blood test!

The poor guy ends up drinking water in a cop wan at 3:30 in the morning until he can pee again and they do the test and he comes clean. No apologies, nothing.. just a plain Ok. You can go now..

He is German by the way..

I work at the airport with its understandably high concentration of Polizei. They stop people there all the time. Was stopped about 2 weeks ago. Was on the autobahn leaving the airport when a Polizei auto passed me in the left lane, pulled in front of me, then initiated a "Bitte Folgen" flashing sign. We stopped at the gas station and I was asked for my drivers license and Fahrzeugschein. A friend of mine also in the car had to provide his ID. All was relatively fast and professional, slight adrenaline rush though...also back during an internship in Karlsruhe 2 years ago I was stopped and asked to provide ID, and empty my pockets. It was 0dark30 and I had just walked by what must have been a known drug selling area (a park.)

I get stopped all the time at these road blocks coming back late from band practise.

My favourite time was when a female copper leans in and says something in German. Of course I suddenly can only speak Cockney in the presence of Polizei. So she asks in English, "Where have you come from?"

"Saaaffff London." says me.

"On your way." says her.

Any legal experts here? Were there alternatives?

Sin lol

I wonder how she would get on with my brummie accent.

I was stopped with 2 other brummies who were visiting me in my British car on the way to Salzburg.

Pulled us over into a service station, asked for ID, my friend had 2 Mobiles on my Dashboard, and they took them away to see if they were reported stolen, I assume.

So dont have to much on show for a copper when he pulls you over, unless u r a girl and wanna get out of a ticket :-p

@ Lupo, if they want to test a driver for drink or drugs, they can. And if you can't provide a urine sample, they can demand a blood test. It's the law. Eveywhere.

i got stopped last night. they had me take a breath alcohol test when they found out i had just left an open air party. [honesty is not the best policy?] i was under the legal limit. [whoohooo!] but they still wouldn't let me drive my car home because i had a some alcohol in me. something to do with insurance law. [MEH] there's a lonely little red car sitting over by the deutsche musuem this morning ;-) still, all in all... thought they were pretty chill... i didn't have my driver's license or the car paperwork with me and they just kinda stopped asking for it after i was fumbling around in the glove box for 10 minutes. much nicer than the police in america, understandable i guess since they aren't always getting shot at here.

Here's what happened..

Returning home from a freinds house at about 01.30, I turned Left off the Frankfurter Ring to join the A9..

I saw what I thought was an accident.

Bloke stands in middle of the road, waving a red Stop light at me..

I stop and wind down my window..
He asks for car papers and License.
I produce them like a good little boy.
He then says "I smell alcohol"

He suggests that I pull to one side to take a Breath test..

I pull over.
Plod No2 comes over, asks for documents, which I produced again..
SHE then asks me take a breath test.. I do, Reading says 0.00.
SHE then asks if I have had any alcohol.. I say NO!
She says, but I can smell it..

I open the boot of my car , and show her two and a half crates of empty beer bottles which need to be returned and re-filled.

She was not too pleased.

Oh well
Another happy ending..

A side of the road piss test? I'm skeptical. Never heard of an instant, roadside drug test, and if you got high a week ago it would show hot, so the reliabilty isn't there. and how long would they have waited for him to piss? I've taken two hours to build up enough for one? Doesn't seem believable to me.

Hehe good story Grinner

We got stopped on Saturday night on Prinzregentenstr. - Allgemeine Verkehrskontrolle - maybe they're practising for the Oktoberfest.

Of course my husband had forgotten his wallet, so he didn't have his license. They then asked for the papers for the car - and I looked in the glove compartment and...couldn't find it. They actually let us go without anything! I was amazed.

After we drove away my husband told me that I shouldn't act so nervous when we get stopped by the police because "this isn't the US, they aren't going to shoot you here".

Having got hight a week earlier and it still showing up wouldn't make you guilty of driving under the influence but it is still used as an indicator about your "suitability" to drive a road vehicle. Certainly in Baden-Würtemburg, a drugs test that proves you took something illegal in the past can result in the loss of your driving licence even if it ha NOTHING to do with any motoring issue.

What? Then anyone that drinks wouldn't be allowed to drive. Because they'd be likely to drink and drive sometime in the future. Preemptive arrests? are you related to G.W. Bush?

drinking is a legal activity IIRC

An alcohol test will turn up negative X hours after you last drank alcahol.
A drugs test can potentially reveal any drug you may have taken up to months afterwards.

People have been deemed "unfit" to drive and had ther licences withdrawn because tests have revelaed that they had taken a drug in the past, not having an influence on their driving at the time they were stopped.

This is an "administrative act" and used to punish particuarly young people for drug use (typicaly hashish smoking) when there was no legal process possible.

BUT!... What if they smoked the Hashish in the Netherlands, where it's legal, last weekend? Should they be punished for that here in Germany?

They can still deem you unfit to be driving because of the remaining THC in your bloodstream. Depends how high the concentration is really

Sure, but the question still remains, are the german Ploizei running around doing random Piss tests? or even targeted, based on a drivers pupil reaction?

or their spelling?

The THC level in your bloodstream can be ZERO but evidence of previous consumption is "registered" in your body, particuarly your hair.

Even if therefore you are NOT under ANY influence, previous consumption is provable and is taken as an indicator that you are "unsuitable" to drive.

The SPD-Green federal government has de-criminalised the consumption of hash and pocession of small ammounts for personal consumption. The implementation of this law however, varies GREATLY from state to state and B-W uses the withdrawl of driving licences as a quasi-judicial punishment.

I'm gonna have to throw the "Bullshit flag " on that one.

Yes it is a "bullshit" policy of the B-W state government and that is why the green have made it an issue and the story has been reported (maybe 18 months ago) in Spiegel.

This has cheered me up no end...an ex-punk, who now has a friend who is a top Bavarian Judge, moaning about the police stopping him.

I thing they just wanted to look at the "specimen Englishman"

You're just pi**ed off because they didn't recognise you, and ask for your autograph.

Try having some pre-signed photographs to hand out, should this unfortunate incident ever be repeated.

BTW I've hearded there's a Led Zeppelin covers band in Munich looking for a bass player...all together now..."There's a Lady who's sure...

I've wound him up enough now...