A hearty “vielen dank” to Wikimedia Commons contributor Garitzko, who has kindly and graciously released the featured photo of the Polizei car into the public domain. I am grateful.

Yesterday, I had an unexpected encounter with the local police. It’s all because I impulsively ordered a new bookshelf for our bedroom. The new shelf is part of my quest to make our house more livable and less cluttered. I also bought a new “trolley” for our bathroom, to put toiletries and cleaning supplies in, as we don’t have a built in cabinet or closet. I got tired of seeing random stuff strewn all over the bathroom, and the pile of dusty books on my nightstand was getting out of hand. While I was at it, I also ordered fancy new toilet brushes! Maybe they will arrive today.

So what does this Amazon.de shopping spree have to do with my interaction with the local cops? Well, it seems that the shelf was shipped to me via GLS, which is a company that delivers parcels. The guy who was delivering the shelf was apparently “lost”, and he rang my neighbor’s doorbell, looking for my house. He claimed I wasn’t home, although I was actually home all morning.

Recently, someone in our neighborhood Facebook group posted about random people who seemed to be casing the neighborhood, possibly looking for places to burgle. I guess, to my neighbors, the delivery guy looked and acted like he might have been up to no good.

My neighbors got suspicious and called the cops, perhaps because they were going to start their vacation yesterday, and were worried about a break in while they were gone. I was none the wiser when this was happening, as I was writing a post on my regular blog and practicing guitar.

Anyway, the delivery guy eventually found my house, rang my doorbell, and dropped off the new shelf, even bringing it into the house for me. I appreciated that, given the rainy weather and the item’s cumbersome size. I still had to haul it upstairs, but aside from being kind of hard to carry, it wasn’t too heavy.

The shelf was very easy to set up– took maybe two minutes, once I opened the box. I moved our laundry hamper and set up the shelf where the hamper had been, then put the books that needed a new home on it. Then I went downstairs to do my daily routine dog poop search and destroy mission in the backyard.

I had just collected and bagged a fresh pile of Noyzi’s shit, and was about to take it to the grey bin, when the doorbell rang again. This time, it was my neighbor wanting to ask about the delivery. In my hand, I still had the bright red bag of fresh dog crap, recently deposited by Noyzi, the Kosovar wonderdog. I tried to hold it out of sight as I spoke to my neighbor.

My neighbor asked me about the delivery. I said I had just received it. His wife came over and asked me more questions. I got the sense that maybe she was the one who was suspicious about the delivery man. I reassured them that yes, I had bought a new bookshelf, and the guy– who was admittedly a little unkempt– had dropped it off a short while ago. I was kind of wanting to hurry up the interrogation, so I could finally rid myself of the bag of crap.

Then, they went back to speak to the male and female police officers. I dashed out to the trash cans so I could throw away Noyzi’s poop. I was dressed in my nightgown, and it was still steadily raining. Nevertheless, the cops wanted to talk to me, too, and tried starting a conversation in the middle of our cul-de-sac. I looked up at the sky and suggested we talk on my stoop, which has benefit of a balcony for shelter from the rain.

The cops asked me to explain everything that happened, right down to showing them the label of my box, verifying that it was delivered by GLS. I described what I remembered of the man and his white van. Then they asked for my phone number, which I struggled to recall, since I don’t call myself or give that number out to too many people.

I noticed, as I was talking to the cops, that they were both VERY young looking. They looked like they were in their early 20s. The woman was quite pretty, too. Both of them spoke English, and they were very polite and even pleasant, and not in the typical “American” sense. Germans, as a rule, are more formal than Americans are.

Lately, I’ve been watching a lot of U.S. based police videos, and I’ve noticed a lot of the American cops are pretty horrible. In fairness, so are a lot of the people they have to deal with… so I guess it’s understandable that they’d be the way they are.

Still, I was quite impressed by the German cops I spoke to yesterday. They were very mature, thorough, and professional, even though they looked like they were barely adults. They took my neighbor’s complaint seriously, even though it was probably clear to them that the delivery was legit, and not some guy looking to break into their house while they’re gone. My non-existent hat is off to them!