About 4 years ago I was going home from work by bus when I noticed that there was a big police presence stopping every vehicle and checking the occupants of the cars.

I didn’t pay much attention to it but when I got out off the bus and was heading home, I saw a police car with three policemen parked near a field. They saw me, exited the vehicle, and approached me, telling me to stop because they wanted to search me.

Being a foreigner and not knowing exactly what my rights were, I told them that they could search me but I first asked what the reason was. The oldest cop answered in a very harsh tone “We cannot tell you why.” and I kept asking “Why not? Why are you searching me?”, they ignored my questions and asked me to check the contents of my bag and made me empty my pockets.
I showed them everything, they even read my agenda and my diary and checked every piece of paper that I had with me. During this, I kept asking why they were checking me, but without any answer other than “We can’t tell you why”.

After checking me, one of the cops took a photo of me and sent it to their HQ for further inquiries from what he told me. I had to wait outside in a mostly empty field in the cold of January while they had me surrounded and waited for information from their HQ.
After roughly 40 minutes I was told I could go home, I then asked again “What happened? Why did you search me?” and the oldest cop angrily answered, “Just watch the news tonight”. I went home in panic and couldn’t sleep well for many nights.

I then found out that there had been a robbery at a local supermarket near the place I lived. Someone even filmed me and I appeared on TELEM1.

https://www.telem1.ch/aktuell/raeuber-ueberfaellt-volg-obergoesgen-133336179

You can see me being searched by 3 cops, I’m wearing a blue jacket.

Was this normal? Since then I have had an intense fear of any police interaction to the point where I get immense heart palpitations and cannot think clearly.

Has anyone had similar stuff happen with them?

6 comments

  6. you might have been unlucky to match the description of the suspect they had. so gender, height, stature, hair colour

    armed robberies are taken very seriously especially in little villages like obergösgen

    nevertheless they should have informed you a bit more. they weren’t allowed to disclose what exactly happened, but they could have said that they were searching for a suspect in a case and you match the description they had, but then again that could be a potential risk for them if you actually were the suspect. the picture they took of you was probably shown to the cashier to see if they can identify you as a potential suspect. but then again, i really don’t know for sure, as i don’t know the full protocols.

    i don’t know the law, but i am pretty sure if someone matches the description of the suspect, they are allowed to do this.

    nevertheless, i think you simply got very unlucky and were at a bad place at a bad time. obviously sucked big time for you, but thankfully that doesn’t happen every day.

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