Belgrade Prison Blues

Many of you already know my story by now from Facebook, but for those of you that aren't on Facebook, I'll re-tell everything here.

As you know, last week I had to cancel a factory trial on Friday because my car was locked up since my landlord didn't pay the parking fees. That situation has been cleared up (at least until April 1) and I was heading back to the factory to run another trial this week. The drive is about 2 hours, and I left my apartment at 6:30am to get there by 8:15-8:30am. I have made this drive many times, and I had been warned that the beginning part of the drive was a speed trap. The road is good, but the limit is 60kph (37mph). Right before you get to the proper highway where the speed limit goes to 120kph (74.5mph), there was a new small construction zone (like 50 feet), and apparently the speed limit dropped to 40kph (25mph).

Needless to say, I didn't see this sign. There was a polija car and 2 cops on the side of the road with a radar gun. One cop held up a "stop" sign and motioned me to pull over. I pulled over, and he came and talked to me. This cop didn't speak English, so he motioned me over to the other guy that was sitting in the police car. So now I'm sitting in the cop car trying to have a discussion with the cop who speaks a little English to my very little Serbian. He shows me that I was going 39kph (25mph) over the speed limit (almost double), and that the fine is 6000-20000rsd ($90-$300). They can't write me a ticket now, and need me to go with them to Belgrade to the police station to take care of the situation. Also, they keep asking about my documentation, and I realize that I don't have the proper legal paperwork in my car and they aren't sure that the car actually belongs to me. Keep in mind that my car is branded, and I guess that it is suspicious that a foreigner was driving a Marbo branded car. Their course of action would be to impound the car.

Up to this point, I didn’t really believe that I would be in trouble. But it was starting to sink in that they want to take me downtown in the back of the cop car. The biggest concern I had is that I will miss my trial (again!). The police office is trying to explain to me what is happening, but I'm not really getting it. I keep asking “how can I resolve this?” I ask if he can just give me the ticket now and I can pay later or if I can pay the fine to him directly, but he says no. He asks if I have a Serbian friend I can call so that he can explain everything to her in Serbian. I call my co-worker (and new friend) that works in the factory. It is about 7:15am and she has a small child so I know that she will be up and I hope that she will answer her phone. She does and I tell her that I'm sitting in a police car and am not sure what is going on and ask if she can help me. I hand the phone over to the cop, and after about 3 minutes, he gives me the phone back. My friend explains to me that the police wanted to arrest me because I was driving very fast, but she told them that because we have a trial that is interrupting production, I HAVE to be in the factory by 8am.

So he lets me go. No fine, no jail, no beating. I thank him profusely (HVALA, HVALA, HVALA!) and drive away, s l o w l y.  I made it to the trial and back to Belgrade with no issues.  Now I have the proper documents in my car and I feel like I dodged a bullet.  It's good to have friends (just call out my name...).  WHEW!