Blotter Story

 Locally, the police reported this story and it's likely to generate a fair amount of hostility.

So in the region, this older couple got this phone call.  In the beginning, it was a lady on the line, suggesting the adult daughter of the couple had gotten into police-trouble.

Then some lawyer (well, he said he was a lawyer) got on the line, and said that the daughter (who was never on the line).....had run over (killed) some 'mother' of two kids while crossing the 'zebra-stripes', in Limburg. 

High-bail was being set for the daughter and to get her release....several thousand Euro needed to be handed to some bail bondsman.  

So the older couple....without calling the daughter or driving to the location....acquired 'several-thousand' Euro.  Some guy arrived at the house door, and the money handed over. 

Then the couple figured out the bogus story, and called the real cops.

Money?  Gone.

There are two integral parts of this story which a reasonable German would have stopped upon and questioned.  

First, bail bondsmen in Germany don't exist, period.  Maybe if you've watched enough Magnum PI or Murder She Wrote.....you believe they exist.....but in reality, no....there's no such people.

Second, judges only hold people if there is murder, in the first degree.  

This type of crap being done on a regular basis?  If you read through the Mainz or Wiesbaden police-blotter....there's probably a dozen calls like this done each week.  In the past, they were mostly about a lotto that you won, or a traffic ticket from ten years ago.