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I’ve already written about my experience with the German Police. Just recently another episode came to an end.

A couple of days ago, last Sunday, we found out that Olya’s bike was stolen from the locked bicycle room in our building’s underground parking :( it’s worth noting that the parking can be accessed only with a key; bicycle rooms are also locked and bikes are chained to floor-mounted bike-racks.

In theory, everything is pretty well secured :) but in practice: anyone can get into the parking through the car gate, when it is left open, by following the car entering the car park; our neighbors are idiots, they almost never lock the bicycle rooms (even now, after the theft); and the bicycle rack was just sawed through by the thief.

Both of our bicycles were chained to the same rack, but only Olya’s bike was stolen. There was probably just one thief, and he couldn’t ride both of the bikes. But he was a bit unlucky: quite literally two weeks ago I installed an AirTag under the seat of Olya’s bike whereas my bike didn’t have a geotracker!

Firstly, we reported the crime to the police — in Berlin it can be easily done online, and filed a claim with our insurance company. Almost immediately we were called back by the police, they asked a few questions and told us that tomorrow, on Monday, the officer would come to take a look at the crime scene.

Then we picked up a carsharing car and drove to the place where the AirTag showed the bike was.

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Over the past two weeks, I’ve had two amusing encounters with the German police.

On one day, I was riding my bike along my usual route. It turned out that part of the road was closed due to construction, but I wasn’t paying much attention to it. After riding about 100 meters, bang!, a female police officer stops me and starts speaking in German. I ask her to switch to English, and she calmly explains that due to the roadworks, you’re not allowed to ride there and shows me where I can take a detour.

On August 19th, there was a supermoon, and I wanted to photograph it in Treptower Park. The idea was to capture the moon behind the Soviet War Memorial. So I went there during the day to scout out the best spot. I should mention that my photography gear isn’t the most professional, but it might look that way from a distance: tripod, camera, 300mm lens. About five minutes later, two police officers approached me and started asking what I was doing there and if I was shooting for commercial purposes. I explained about the supermoon and that at most, I’d post the photo on my little blog. The guys said they had no issues with what I was doing but warned me that the monument and park are under Russian control, and if “they” (it wasn’t entirely clear who exactly) don’t like my photos, “they” might ask me to delete them. I hope it won’t come to that :/ Below is the supermoon photo I took that evening.