My LIfe Review in Encouraging Stories

Recently I was a witness of one funny and at the same time absurd event that happened in a city of Ternopil, West of Ukraine. I was driving in the center of the city and saw a road police loading a Mercedes car on their wrecker truck. 

It was a regular event that happens often in Ternopil, as our road police set a lot of forbidden parking places ( that were allowed before) and in case of driver's violation, they come with the special wrecker and take a car to their parking place. Then a driver needs to pay money (fine) to take his/her car back. It is a regular driving rule that exists in almost every country..with the exception, that here there are no signs that tells about forbidden parking, not enough parking zones( or better to say almost not at all and that police acts like "thefts" when they take a car. They look first if the driver is not around, then "sneak" , load a car and then - " run away". Usually if a driver is back, he makes them give his/her car back, as their action are not fully legally. 

So when I drove closer, I saw familiar car tags and they were not Ukrainian ones. This year we visited Holland and I recognized Dutch tags!  It was so ridiculous for me that I felt sorry for my country. It was ok, when we punish our drivers ( as I mentioned before  not on  a " legal and true base", but it looked too awful that the police did it to foreigners, who came to Ternopil to be guests and  expect to warm acceptance. Here you are warm Ukrainian police acceptance!!!

I took my mobile phone and took some photos with that event. Then drove further and stopped, as wanted to help somehow.

It was a Dutch man with Ukrainian lady ( I couldn't make photos of any of them), and the lady was making calls somewhere, explaining what happened with them. Probably they could be her friends of family. Meanwhile a Dutch man tried to explain to police using  his hands and broken English that he was sorry and he needed his car. The answer of police was in Ukrainian and rude manner - " it is your problem, you were not supposed to park a car here". It was such a sad picture and seeing that I was so sorry for our rudeness toward other people!!

Then me and my coworker came to that couple, trying to help. As soon as we started to talk, Ukrainian lady thanked us for help and told they didn't need any help, as she informed her friends already, who were supposed to help. The Dutch man, just stood close, observing conversation. We wished them the best and went away. Finally the car was loaded on a police truck and taken away.

There is a moral in this story. If you are in Ukraine - watch the policemen and their truck, as they will appear "sneaking around" and want to take a foreign car, as they can charge more for it..  

P.S. Next day I saw accidentally the same car, from the direction of police parking place , so I made conclusion that they were able to take their car just on the next day. But glad that they were able to take it anyway...