THE POLIZEI

The Polizei

So we were sitting around our apartment's kitchen table last night. We were chatting, surfing on the Internet, writing emails and planning for the next day's traveling. Ron was relaxing on the couch watching a golf tournament on TV with the sound turned off.

At 10:30 PM there was loud knock on our apartment door. We all looked at each other with uncertainty and surprise. Ron went to the door and said, "who is it". "the Police", came a man's voice through the door. Ron opened the door and there stood a male and female police officer. They had apparently been called by a neighbor who complained of too much noise coming from our apartment.

We were shocked and in disbelief because we had not heard any noise! I would have thought that we should have heard the noise first as we were, apparently, the closest to it! Ron was very polite and respectful as the Gestapo accused us of being too noisy, else we might have needed to be bailed out of the slammer this morning.

After showing his passport, proving we were foreigners, they let us know without question, that any noise after 10:00 o'clock in Vienna is not permitted! Ron simply apologized for our behavior and politely asked the officers to see their credentials. The male officer pointed to his uniform and chuckled but Ron said anyone could buy a uniform! So they produced some sort of identification we couldn't read anyway.

After another stern warning or two they said if they got another call we would be in big trouble, and then they left. We were still wondering what we did to warrant such a report. We reported the incident to our Hostess this morning and she was very surprised that this could happen.

As I write about this incident I am convinced that there must be more to this than meets the eye. Considering the four of us are of the codger generation and are often prone to napping and dozing off at any given time, I would propose that we all fell asleep for a short time; possibly long enough for Flat Stanley to have thrown a party or something!