My experience with the police

I was out for a walk this morning, and passed my local police station here in Vrilissia. Having been in it (story to follow) I realized I have never been in a U.S. police station. Wow, the things I am achieving here in Greece. Check that one off the list!

So, the story. It starts out as a day out with some friends - we were all to meet downtown to do a bit of shopping and lunch. These friends are fellow wives of Greeks, who are also unemployed and relatively friendless here in Greece. So shopping, lunch or the beach become our major pastimes.

Anyway, back to the story. I was driving around the neighborhood near the metro station, looking for a place to park, and running late. I turned a corner in my continued search and noticed a spot in my rear view mirror. Those of you who have driven with me might recall that I have decent parking karma. Once again, I thought, ooh! lucky me! I promptly backed into the spot, hopped out of the car, and headed for the metro.

After the day with the girls was over, and I was leaving the metro, Vasilis called me to see where I was. Being on the street where I parked the car, my response was "... should be home in a few minutes." I kept walking down the street, and walking, and starting to worry. I knew I had parked it at that corner - right there! My car had been stolen! Nope. I took a closer look. The spot was the main entry/exit of the parking for an apartment building. I was smack dab in front of it. Yep, there it was - the no parking sign on the gate (much like the one pictured above). Lovely. I had been towed.

Phone call to hubby. "Honey, I think I fucked up." That's exactly what he wants to hear having just settled in for a nap on a hot afternoon. Fortunately, my wonderful supporting husband picked me up and we went to the police station. They were able to tell us who to contact about getting the car back, but we would have to visit still another police station to pay the ticket. Strangely, police from a neighboring town handled the situation, even though our police station was only 1km away.

Next stop, finding and meeting the towing guy to get our car. It was a bit of a ways away, but at least we were able to do it that evening. 96 Euros later (~$150) we had the car. Paying the ticket was left for me to do the next day - which would also get us our license plates back.  Note to U.S. law enforcement: there's a sure fire way to make sure someone pays their tickets!

I went there the next day, but the guy who handles tickets wasn't there, so I would have to come back Monday.  Ok fine - typical Greece there.  I returned on Monday, parking several blocks away since I was driving without plates I figured I shouldn't be parking in front of the station! They told me I first needed to pay the ticket at the post office (you can pay for just about everything there) but I wouldn't get the plates back for 10 days.  I asked them if my husband is penalized for my bad parking too?  Couldn't I get the plates back sooner?  I was shuttled to the Captain (thank god, the conversation could finally switch to English at this point).  I explained what happened and that I wanted my husband to be able to drive the car.  After he apologized for the inconvenience (what, he parked the car in a tow away zone?) he instructed me to pay the ticket (40 euros, but reduced to 20 if you pay within 10 days of the ticketing date) and bring hubby in to fill out a form and show his ID and registration since he is the owner of the car.  Thank goodness they didn't ask to see my drivers license.  I have read that a valid US license is sufficient here but I wasn't ready to definitively find out whether that's true.

So, we got it all sorted the next morning - requiring me to inconvenience hubby once again by being late for work.  Three days of feeling like an asshole finally over. [Note: this feeling was completely self-imposed.  Never a bad comment from Vasilis.  How lucky am I?]

A couple things struck me during all of this - one which not really a surprise but now firsthand knowledge for me.  Laws in Greece are really just suggestions.  The law says that they must keep the plates for 10 days, but there's ways around that.  We were also supposed to pay the ticket, but the officer who processed us said we hadn't really needed to (despite being so instructed by his Captain).  Evidently, we could have gotten away without doing that either.  Hell, I didn't really think there were any rules around parking until this happened!  The biggest thing though, was how darned friendly and helpful they were at the police station.  Any time state employed people are friendly here, I am quite surprised.  And they were so helpful to me, just some idiot who parked in the wrong spot.