# So how many times have you been pulled over by the police for speeding?



## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

Fabri88 said:


> Why does it raise at night? I think that at night must be lower than in the daylight 'cause visibility is surely lower!


I think many eastern European countries had either that or a permanent 60 km/h urban speed limit, although the latter is becoming rare in the European Union.


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## Baiazid (Oct 6, 2010)

Yes, in Romania we did have 60 km/h urban speed limit up to the late nineties.

Actually this topic should be rather called "how many times have they caught you?" In Romania it all has to do with the radar technology + the law. During the early nineties, the radar technology used by the Romanian police was quite primitive. They had to lay down wires on the road and they needed 2 police cars: one with the radar and the other one some 2-300 m further, to stop the speeding drivers. This was actually a joke in terms of cathing "the bad guys", cause the police cars and the wires on the road were extremly visible, so the drivers had to be really silly to be caught.

In '92-'93 I think, Romanian Police got new radars. Not exquisite, but better. The radar cell was mounted in fron of the car, instead of the front number plate. Those radard worked only stationery, and the range was 2-300m. Police equipped only white unmarked Dacia 1310 with this and they still needed 2 police cars: one with the radar and a second one for pulling over. So, again, it was quite silly to get caught, since the cars were very easy to spot on the side of the road and you had plenty of time to break, before entering the range of the radar.

Then after 2000, the Romanian Police got it's first real deal radars, with a range of 1km, 8 beams, 180 degree visbility, video recording, able to record incomming and outgoing vehicles, even when the radar car is moving. With these radars, the fun years ended. With this technology the Police needs only one car for all the job. They just park quite perpendicularely on a road, well hidden by a fence, on sa straight stretch, and they start "phishing". The upside is that the Police is regularely targeted on some special dangerous stretches or during the days with heavy traffic. So they're still easy to avoid.

Last year, they've upgraded a notch: they bought even better radars and they've equipped some twousends of new police cars with them. One of the features they use most is the stand by function, which allows the policeman to switch the radar beam on only when he suspects a car is speeding. This way they make useless the radar detectors, because by the time the radar is beeping, you're already "toasted". As I never use radar detector, it's not an issue for me, but a lot of people got in trouble with those new radars because of relying on the radar detector.

As far as the law is concerned, only in the recent years we got the point system. Each penalty adds points and once you hit 15 points you get 3 months suspension, with the right to have some "traffic safety" courses and reduce the penalty to 30 days. However, the points expire after 6 months. A "regular" speeding ticket commes with 2 points. If you do more the 50km/h above the legal speed, that's 15 points.

Having said all that, they did caught me sometimes. But not anymore in the past 4 years. I only got caught in Romania something like 10-15 times in 20 years of driving and twice in Hungary.


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## g.spinoza (Jul 21, 2010)

I don't know about other contries, but in Italy *by law* police is forced to publish documents about the position of fixed and mobile speed traps, so if one reads these documents it is impossible to get caught. If they fine you using a speed trap not previously made public, you can go to the judge and make the ticket void.


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## nerdly_dood (Mar 23, 2007)

I think the Polish logic behind higher speed limits at night is that there's less traffic at night, so people won't have to be as careful about other traffic as they do during they day.


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## TheCat (Apr 21, 2006)

Fabri88 said:


> Seriously, isn't so in Alabama?


Making a right turn at a red light is legal by default in most of the US and Canada. As far as I know, it is only illegal in NYC and in Montreal. The behaviour is the same as at a stop sign, although many drivers don't stop if the way is obviously clear from the start (it largely depends on the chance of getting caught in the particular locale).

There may be signs prohibiting this behaviour, and from my (limited) experience, this varies greatly from place to place. For example, in Toronto those signs are very rare and in most intersections you can make such a turn. On the other hand, when I visited suburban NYC (e.g. Long Island), I noticed that many intersections had signs explicitly prohibiting such turns.


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## Penn's Woods (Apr 8, 2010)

TheCat said:


> Making a right turn at a red light is legal by default in most of the US and Canada. As far as I know, it is only illegal in NYC and in Montreal. The behaviour is the same as at a stop sign, although many drivers don't stop if the way is obviously clear from the start (it largely depends on the chance of getting caught in the particular locale).
> 
> There may be signs prohibiting this behaviour, and from my (limited) experience, this varies greatly from place to place. For example, in Toronto those signs are very rare and in most intersections you can make such a turn. On the other hand, when I visited suburban NYC (e.g. Long Island), I noticed that many intersections had signs explicitly prohibiting such turns.


I didn't know it was illegal in Montreal (and what's "Montreal" these days - the whole island?).

Some states permit lefts on red as well, so long as you're going from one one-way street to another.

Treat the red light as if it were a stop sign is a good way of articulating it - I explain it that way myself - but I rarely hear it said that way for some reason.


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## TheCat (Apr 21, 2006)

^^ Yes, forgot to mention those. Left turns on red are indeed allowed from one-way to one-way. It makes sense - it is exactly like a right turn in this situation.

Returning back to the topic of this thread, I haven't received any tickets yet (knock on wood). I've been pulled over twice for random alcohol checks late at night, though at both instances I just said that I hadn't been drinking when asked (which was true) and was let go without any actual breathalyzer tests. I am not an aggressive driver, though I do often drive about 10-15 km/h higher (in the city) and ~20 km/h higher (on the motorway) than the limit.

I've been driving independently since 2007, and had my learner's permit since 2003.



ChrisZwolle said:


> ...
> I've got a few speeding tickets for doing *2 - 7 km/h* over the limit, nothing serious in the past 5 years.


Wow - just 2km/h? I think the refresh rate on my car's digital speedometer isn't even quick enough to display a temporary fluctuation like this if I press the gas a bit too much .


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## Xusein (Sep 27, 2005)

I've never been pulled over for speeding before.

However, last summer when I was in suburban Minneapolis, some cop pulled me over and checked my license and registration all because my high beams were on. :? Honestly, a true WTF moment.


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## nerdly_dood (Mar 23, 2007)

Xusein said:


> I've never been pulled over for speeding before.
> 
> However, last summer when I was in suburban Minneapolis, some cop pulled me over and checked my license and registration all because my high beams were on. :? Honestly, a true WTF moment.


That is definitely annoying but I don't know if it's illegal in Minnesota. Virginia state law says on the subject of high beams:


Code of Virginia § 46.2-1034 said:


> When dimming headlights required.
> 
> Whenever a vehicle is being driven on a highway or a portion thereof which is sufficiently lighted to reveal any person or object upon such highway at a distance of 350 feet ahead, the operator of such vehicle shall use the low beam of his vehicle's headlights or shall dim the headlights if the vehicle has single-beam lights. Whenever a vehicle approaches an oncoming vehicle within 500 feet, the driver of such vehicle shall use the low beam of his vehicle's headlights so aimed that glaring rays are not projected into the eyes of the oncoming driver or dim the headlights, if the vehicle has single-beam lights. Whenever the driver of any motor vehicle approaches from the rear or follows within 200 feet of another vehicle proceeding in the same direction, the driver shall use the low beam of his vehicle's headlights or shall dim the headlights if the vehicle has single-beam lights.


Headlights are also required to be turned ON when visibility is LESS than 350 feet, or at night or when it's raining. High beams are optional except as stated above. I almost never use my high beams; I really hate glaring headlights so i do my part to avoid doing it to others.


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## Professor L Gee (Aug 10, 2009)

Pulled over for speeding 4 times. All speeds below are in mph.
First time (cop said 75 in a 55), warning.
Second time (70 in a 55), ticket. I was doing 84, so I was thankful for that one.
Third time (70 in a 55), ticket. They've since raised the speed limit to 60 on that stretch.
Fourth time (72 in a 60), ticket.

All were on US highways (non-Interstate). I've never been pulled over on an Interstate and don't plan to.


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## Road_UK (Jun 20, 2011)

I haven't been pulled up that much at all, which surprises me, seeing that I'm all over Europe all the time. 
Been pulled up in:

Sweden E4 near Linkoping doing 140 instead of 110. Had to make it on the 17:00 ferry to Helsinki from Stockholm. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it!

M6 through Birmingham.

E17 at Jabbeke on my way to Calais. Did 140-150 instead of 120. Motorbike cop pulled me into the Total services. Parked right in front of the shop, and started speaking English to me shouting: GOODEVENING SIRRRR. He laughed when I responded in Dutch to him. He invited me inside the shop and we had a few coffee's together, and he kept on offering me cigarettes. We kept on yapping for about an hour and he showed me pictures of his wife and kids, and obviously I already thought that I got away with it. But no, then he raised the subject of me speeding, and still had to pay 200 euros on the spot! Bastard!
Two weeks later I got pulled near Arlon heading towards Luxembourg. Same excessive speed, same on-the-spot fine. At both locations they only pull foreigners up.
My best friend and colleague never gets pulled for speeding in Belgium, but he gets pulled by blokes in lay-by's where he stops to have a rest and gets offered blow-jobs all the time. I never stop in a lay-by in Belgium if I can avoid it. Too many Belgians walking around looking for gay sex.

Netherlands: A27 near Utrecht. 200 euros on the spot.
A12 after Arnhem. Copper let me off with a warning. 

France: A10 between Poitiers and Bordeaux. Did about 160. Copper wrote 130 on a piece of paper, and that was it. 

Italy. Not for speeding, but it was a hot summer day, I wasn't in a hurry, and I wanted to swim in the sea on the Italian Riviera. Drove into Portofino, where the local police done me for driving a vehicle exceeding 6.30 meters. 70 euros on the spot. My van is 7 meters.


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## Penn's Woods (Apr 8, 2010)

June of 1982, in my home town, a week before high-school graduation. Doing 42.25 (mph) in a (ridiculous) 25. Cop felt sorry for me and let me go.

Inauguration Day 2009, trying to get into Washington to stand in the bitter cold near the Lincoln Memorial, watching the ceremony (a good mile and a half away) on the big screen. Caught by the now-notorious automatic radar on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Six-lane state highway, major route from the Beltway into Washington, and this very wealthy suburb that apparently doesn't make enough on property taxes puts a 30-mph limit and enforces it with the automatic radar. The radar was new at the time (and automatic radars are very rare here) so I didn't know about it. Now I've noticed the locals all do about 28 or 29 past it. It was my own fault, though; traffic was light and I was in a bit of a hurry, so I became impatient and passed, doing about 44, a line of cars who I now know probably knew about the damn radar. That's my one and only ticket.

A few months ago, Bel Air, Maryland, on a Sunday evening. The limit on Md. 22 drops suddenly from 45 or 50 to 30 when you enter the town. Cop pulls out behind me, follows me... "Did you know you were doing 43?" "I must have missed a sign." "What's your driving record like?" "I can't remember the last time I was stopped for speeding" (which was true - I was too flustered). "Why did you turn right when you saw I was behind you with my lights on." "Because I didn't see a safe place to stop in the block ahead but I knew there was parking around the corner." That apparently satisfied him and he let me go with a warning. While I was talking to the cop, a passerby remarked to someone he was with, "that's the fifth [or whatever the number was] person I've seen pulled over tonight." I'm guessing they were either looking for someone or trying to catch drunk drivers.


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## g.spinoza (Jul 21, 2010)

Penn's Woods said:


> June of 1982, in my home town, a week before high-school graduation. Doing 42.25 (mph) in a (ridiculous) 25. Cop felt sorry for me and let me go.


That happened to me, too, but it was the morning of high-school final exam. I wasn't driving, we were four in my friend's car, and we weren't speeding, but the cop started very slooooowly to go through all our papers. "Ahem, mr. Cop, we're going to be late to our final exam. We could all fail the exam if we're late. Can you speed up the process?"

We barely made it.


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## Road_UK (Jun 20, 2011)

^^
I guess when it comes to traffic offences there isn't much difference between US and Euro cops. Depends in which State or country you are, whether the cop is a jerk or actually a fine guy doing his job with respect to humanity. 

Only in the Bavaria region of Germany I generally find there is too much police, and most of them are assholes. My colleagues always complain about the French police of Gendarmes, but I think that's just stupid typical British anti-French sentiment. France is one of my favourite countries in Europe, and never had any problems with the police. I find them helpful, polite and doing their job as they should.


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## bogdymol (Feb 4, 2010)

Road_UK said:


> E17 at Jabbeke on my way to Calais. Did 140-150 instead of 120. Motorbike cop pulled me into the Total services. Parked right in front of the shop, and started speaking English to me shouting: GOODEVENING SIRRRR. He laughed when I responded in Dutch to him. He invited me inside the shop and we had a few coffee's together, and he kept on offering me cigarettes. We kept on yapping for about an hour and he showed me pictures of his wife and kids, and obviously I already thought that I got away with it. But no, then he raised the subject of me speeding, and still had to pay 200 euros on the spot! Bastard!


Bastard!!! I didn't think about this ending when I read that you wen inside for a coffee...


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## Road_UK (Jun 20, 2011)

Just reading quoted post, I realised I've put in E17. Jabbeke is obviously on the E40.


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## Stainless (Jun 7, 2009)

Road_UK said:


> My best friend and colleague never gets pulled for speeding in Belgium, but he gets pulled by blokes in lay-by's where he stops to have a rest and gets offered blow-jobs all the time. I never stop in a lay-by in Belgium if I can avoid it. Too many Belgians walking around looking for gay sex.


I made the mistake of going into the woods in a Belgian Lay-by. Ran away quite quickly. Are they all like that?


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## Road_UK (Jun 20, 2011)

Yes, Belgians are like that. Got a few of those in Holland as well. And in France around Metz there is one lay-by of a motorway going towards Nancy where all number plates are local (57). You know full well they are not there for a rest...
I hate these places!


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

They actually closed a number of rest areas without services due to these "activities" in the Netherlands.


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## Road_UK (Jun 20, 2011)

Good.


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## x-type (Aug 19, 2005)

ontopic: 3. 2 times i was brand new driver (not even 1 year old licence). once i did 86 km/h, limit was 60. second time i did 77 km/h, limit was 50. both times i paid something little, but it hurted my student pocket.
third time i was caught at one of those silly places where is non sense limit. i did 83, limit was 50. i would go slower, but one other SSC member was in car with me and we had a nice chat, so i didn't realize my speed. i paid to officer something so he didn't write me ticket  he felt sorry because he pulled me


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## LtBk (Jul 27, 2004)

Too much police in Bavaria?


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## Road_UK (Jun 20, 2011)

LtBk said:


> Too much police in Bavaria?


Oh Yes! Apparently due to the Eastern-European traffic coming out of Austria and Czech Republic. Fact is that they are oppressive and racist.


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## Alex Von Königsberg (Jan 28, 2007)

Road_UK said:


> Oh Yes! Apparently due to the Eastern-European traffic coming out of Austria and Czech Republic. Fact is that they are oppressive and racist.


I drove quite a lot in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, and honestly I cannot say there is a lot of police there. But maybe it is from my American perspective because there is really a lot of police in the States - whereas West European countries use automatic camera-radars, the US states use actual policemen to catch speeders. In my opinion, it is a waste of money and resources, plus dealing with American police in general is not a nice experience - I will take German polizei any day.


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## Road_UK (Jun 20, 2011)

I drive through Europe for a living in a van, and I generally don't have police in Europe wasting my time as much as in Bavaria. Always Bavaria. When I see police sitting on the side of the road, I instinctively know they are going to switch their engine on, overtake me and pull me up. One time I was taken to a motorway police station outside Regensburg, where I and my van got subjected to a 2 hour search. They even did a drug test on me. Found nothing, and I was allowed to carry on to Hungary. They're red-hot for British number plates.


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## g.spinoza (Jul 21, 2010)

I drove nearly 30 thousand km in Bavaria in the last 9 months and I've never been stopped by police... but I think it's just by chance, lots of people I know have been stopped.


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## Road_UK (Jun 20, 2011)

g.spinoza said:


> I drove nearly 30 thousand km in Bavaria in the last 9 months and I've never been stopped by police... but I think it's just by chance, lots of people I know have been stopped.


I'm surprised you don't get stopped with your Italian number plate. I see people with Italian plates being stopped and searched all the time on the A8 at/near Rosenheim or Irschenberg.


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## hofburg (Jun 27, 2009)

whats so suspicinus with italian or british registration?


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## Agurv (Aug 14, 2011)

Just got a warning. Was doing 65 in a 35 in the Outter Banks, North Carolina, it was like 6 AM. I told the officer that I driving from Pennsylvania to NC all night and I was about 10 minutes from my destination. Honestly I think he just saw I was flying but didnt really know how fast I was going. 

Gotten a ticket for running a stop sign, I was pulled over in the parking lot of my job. Couldn't believe he gave me a ticket. It was $150

Worst of all. Street Cleaning ticket. Gotten like 3 or 4. 

I go about 90-95 on a road trip so I'm sure I will get them in the future. Been very very lucky in a lot of circumstances, still have no idea why i wasnt pulled over. I have blown by cops going 80-90 mph and figured I was done but they never came after me


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

I just got two tickets: one for illegal overtaking or a very slow (20km/h) damaged truck (the trailer was clearly unbalanced) on a straight 1+1 roadl; other, the one I really hate, when I had stopped, 2am or smth, at a hotel in Zurich, industrial area. The underground parking garage was full, the receptionist told me I could leave the car in a place supposedly marked as "no parking" in the private driveway of the hotel. So I did, only to find out, next morning, my car had been towed because it was "interfering with the airport shuttle van maneuvering" and had to pay CHF 500 :O


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## LtBk (Jul 27, 2004)

hofburg said:


> whats so suspicinus with italian or british registration?


Illegal immigrants from Southeast Europe?


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## bogdymol (Feb 4, 2010)

Agurv said:


> Worst of all. Street Cleaning ticket. Gotten like 3 or 4.


You mean _littering_? If _yes_, you deserved it. I hate when people throw objects on the car's window.


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## Penn's Woods (Apr 8, 2010)

^^He may mean moving the car so the street - the actual roadway - can be cleaned. I don't know about Pittsburgh, but in New York City there's something called alternate-side parking: on any given street you have to park on, say, the left side on even-numbered days and the right on odd-numbered ones. So you have to move your car every evening even if you don't otherwise use it every day. Which is one reason so many New Yorkers don't bother owning cars.

We don't have this strange custom in Philadelphia.


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## Usamljeni Hashishar (Oct 4, 2010)

I have an extensive driving record in 15 years of driving in central Arizona: countless speeding tickets (at least 10, 2 worst ones were driving 78mph in 35mph zone & 120mph in 65mph zone), running the red light twice, not stopping on a stop sign, hit & run, driving with a suspended license, driving under influence of marijuana (with a possession of same), driving with a broken headlight, 1 ticket for reckless driving, a ticket for following too close, a ticket for unsafe lane change, driving with a expired plates (in my brother's car though so I never paid a fine). That's all I can remember right now. I'm pretty sure I'll remember some more later. Funny thing is that I got most of those tickets between ages of 16 & 25. In past 6 years I only got 1 ticket & it was a speed camera.


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## Agurv (Aug 14, 2011)

bogdymol said:


> You mean _littering_? If _yes_, you deserved it. I hate when people throw objects on the car's window.


No, its basically what Penn's Wood said. Every Tuesday a street cleaner comes up my street during the spring-summer-fall. If my car is parked on the street then I get a ticket. You can park on the other side of the road to avoid it but to be honest with you I completely forget about it when I get home monday night


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## bogdymol (Feb 4, 2010)

Usamljeni Hashishar said:


> I have an extensive driving record in 15 years of driving in central Arizona: countless speeding tickets (at least 10, 2 worst ones were driving 78mph in 35mph zone & 120mph in 65mph zone), running the red light twice, not stopping on a stop sign, hit & run, driving with a suspended license, driving under influence of marijuana (with a possession of same), driving with a broken headlight, 1 ticket for reckless driving, a ticket for following too close, a ticket for unsafe lane change, driving with a expired plates (in my brother's car though so I never paid a fine). That's all I can remember right now. I'm pretty sure I'll remember some more later. Funny thing is that I got most of those tickets between ages of 16 & 25. In past 6 years I only got 1 ticket & it was a speed camera.


You're a bad boy :nuts:



Agurv said:


> No, its basically what Penn's Wood said. Every Tuesday a street cleaner comes up my street during the spring-summer-fall. If my car is parked on the street then I get a ticket. You can park on the other side of the road to avoid it but to be honest with you I completely forget about it when I get home monday night


Then it's not that bad.


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## Agurv (Aug 14, 2011)

bogdymol said:


> You're a bad boy :nuts:
> 
> 
> 
> Then it's not that bad.


Yeah just annoying hno:


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## Road_UK (Jun 20, 2011)

hofburg said:


> whats so suspicinus with italian or british registration?


Probably because they are known to bring cheap cigarettes, alcohol and illegal immigrants back? I don't know. British plates get a little extra attention from French customs as well, together with the Spanish...


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## bogdymol (Feb 4, 2010)

Road_UK said:


> Probably because they are known to bring cheap cigarettes, alcohol and illegal immigrants back? I don't know. British plates get a little extra attention from French customs as well, together with the Spanish...


RO citizens also get special attention when entering UK... hno:


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## Road_UK (Jun 20, 2011)

bogdymol said:


> RO citizens also get special attention when entering UK... hno:


Yes, but also in Italy, Austria and Spain. There is a reason for that: A lot of Romanian gangsters are operating in these countries, often posing as police officers and than robbing unaware tourists. I got robbed in Italy by such a gang, and my colleague and best friend in Austria, when there were posing as customs officers. They stole all of his money and laptop.


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