Job Discussion Forums

molly farquharson · Joined: 16 Jun 2004 Posts: 839 Location: istanbul

A Turkish friend of mine told me about this. he was walking in Taksim Square and a couple of police officers came up to him and asked for his ID. they told him they thought he had drugs, so they were going to take him in a taxi to the police station. He immediately got suspicious and asked for their IDs. They got nervous and ran off. of course they were not real police, and he figures once they got him into a taxi, they would have robbed him. have any of you heard stories like this?

dmb · Joined: 12 Feb 2003 Posts: 8397

Alexius · Joined: 20 Dec 2006 Posts: 14

A former colleague was stopped by a couple of police officers on Istiklal Caddesi a few years ago, and fined 50 lira for something nonsensical - they even went so far as to escort him to the cash machine to secure their prize.

Anyway, the guy had the presence of mind to relate the story to a private student of his who happened to be an inspector; the inspector gave him his card, and told him to call immediately should that happen again.

The following day, he caught sight of the rogue and politely asked for his cash back. Said rogue chuckled at that, until the cell phone was whipped out and he caught sight of the name, rank and office...immediate refund.

So yeah, stuff like that happens. The fake police routine is an old one, too, though I have never heard of anyone going so far as to wear a fake uniform to pull it off. Molly, in this case were they uniformed or in civilian dress?

molly farquharson · Joined: 16 Jun 2004 Posts: 839 Location: istanbul

dunno, as the story was told to me, not one i experienced myself. Hmmm, people can be very inventive here.

one thing that i thought of, though, was that if this were iraq, it is people dressed in police or soldier uniforms that bomb and kill. i am very thankful to be living here. at least turkish "inventiveness" is naughty rather than malevolent.

bradpitt · Joined: 19 Jul 2006 Posts: 4

not malevolent??????? Very funny.

mthood · Joined: 03 Aug 2006 Posts: 73

i too feel very lucky to live in a place where there are fake police that steal your money.

Baba Alex · Joined: 17 Aug 2004 Posts: 2411

dagi · Joined: 01 Jan 2004 Posts: 425

That does not only happen in Turkey. A similar scam happened two years ago in Amsterdam. People walked around in fake police uniforms and their main target were Japanese tourists.

thrifty · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1665 Location: chip van

Naughty????????? Stockholm syndrome or what?

thrifty · Joined: 25 Apr 2006 Posts: 1665 Location: chip van

Last nights news had a story about an English teacher who was raped in her home. It was in a smart suburb and she worked in a nearby private school. The rapist climbed over the wall of the site and got in despite them having 14 security guards for the site. He was caught and is suspected of raping a swiss tourist in the street.

Please do not call this naughty or say it is not malevolent.

CECTPA · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 9:14 pm Post subject:

I had an encounter with fake police recently. I called a real cop into the scenario and they left me alone.

At least it seems they don't discriminate. I thought they were just picking on me b/c I am obviously foreign.