A tale of two jails

A modern-day minstrel happened to be in our neck of the woods the other day. Thomas Meixner has visited almost 100 countries via bicycle since the fall of the Berlin wall freed him to travel beyond the borders of the GDR over 20 years ago. We hosted him for a night at our house in Kitchener.

Currently on a 20-month tour from Alaska to the southernmost tip of South America, he keeps diligent notes on his experiences and expenses. He figures his cost of living in North America to be about 10 euros per day, made possible through camping in the country or overnighting in houses, fire halls and monasteries along the way.  When he's not touring, he earns money for the next tour by lecturing on his travels to interested groups in Germany. He takes enough work to sustain himself, but not so much that he's obliged to file quarterly taxes--too much extra paperwork, he says.

We chatted into the evening and he spoke of the times his adventures have led to arrest.

One trip found him cycling into Turkey late in the evening. After looking for a place to camp in the dark, he had pitched his tent and had just settled in for the night when four Turkish soldiers descended on the tent with flashlights ablaze.

"Scheiße," he recalled thinking.

His offence: camping too close to the Turkey-Greece border. He explained that he was a just a traveller, and in fact, as a citizen of a Schengen country, he was permitted to enter Greece without even a visa.

The soldiers apologized for the inconvenience, but as they had been called out in the middle of the night to investigate him, they had no option but to arrest him and process the paperwork for his release the next day when offices were open. As consolation, they mentioned, there was hot tea at the jail that he was more than welcome to. He was brought to the jail, spent the night in a cell in the basement of the building and was released the next day.

A separate trip found him and a few friends he had met on the road cycling through northern California.  They started the day by stopping at a gas station to fill up their camp stove's fuel canister. Total cost: 60 cents. He went in to the store to pay. The clerk informed him there was a $5 minimum fuel purchase. (There is actually a law that permits this, but only if you're filling up a vehicle.) He explained that he couldn't afford to pay $5 for 60 cents of gas, and paid her with the money he had on hand--a $5 bill.

She took it, and kept it.

He asked for his change.

She said no.

He asked loudly for his change.

She loudly said no.

He said fine, he'd take something worth $4.40. He looked around the store and found some energy bars that he felt satisfied their obligation to him, communicated this to her and made to leave.

She called him a thief.

He called her a thief.

She pulled a pistol.

At this point, a woman travelling with him who had been waiting outside came into the store to see what was going on.

Loud words were exchanged, the clerk waved her pistol. The cyclists left in a hurry, thinking "Californians are crazy."

15 kilometres later they came across a road blockade of four police cars, complete with canine unit. Wow! Just like in the movies when they're chasing a criminal! They pulled up to the police and inquired who they were after.

"Are you the guy who just robbed a gas station?"

"Scheiße," he recalls thinking.

The gas station clerk had called the cops and reported a violent theft. He and his companion were arrested; him for theft, her for assault. They were taken to jail and processed separately due to their gender difference. The woman refused to sign the booking papers as she did not read enough English to understand what she was signing. Consequently, after being fitted for their orange jumpsuits, he went into the general holding cell and she to an isolation cell.

The story has a somewhat happy ending: the next morning came and his fellow cellmates were called for their arraignment. His name wasn't called. Instead, an officer was double-checking the facts and deciding whether to proceed with charges.  The officer ultimately visited the gas station, lectured the clerk for her actions, and returned to the jail to release Thomas and his female companion.

Tea for violating border policies versus solitary confinement for the suspicion of stealing $5 of gas. Amazing.