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I lived in Colombia for eight years with my Colombian partner and our daughter. We lived in Cartagena, so close to the airport that we could hear all the airline flight announcements. Our neighbour was the chief of police and our daughter used to play with his kids so we spent some time in each other's homes.
I am a licenced amateur radio operator ham radio. There were a group of us, all radio operators, who used to hang around together. One day we decided to drive to another city. As one of our little group lived on a farm, we arranged to pick him up on the way. The driver was not too sure of the way to our pal's farm and managed to take the wrong turning. A couple of miles up this country lane, he realized his mistake and turned the car around. Unbeknown to us, a group of narcotic police had staked out the area because at the end of the road was a building that was being used to manufacture illegal drugs. The police were waiting for the operators to return and, seeing our jeep turn around, they thought that we were them and that we had spotted them. So, they gave chase and surrounded us with guns drawn. Seeing that we all had hand held radios only reinforced their suspicions. They placed one of their officers into our car and ordered us to drive to the police headquarters. When we arrived, they proudly escorted us into the chief's office.
"Hello Sheldon," said the chief. "What are YOU doing here?"
"Ask your funny fails officers," I remarked, glaring at them, as they began to look very uncomfortable.
"I know all these people," explained the chief. "What seems to be the problem?"
A short discussion followed whereupon the arresting officers all apologized and coffee was served to us. On the way out, the chief had his arm around my shoulder. I looked around and just about every policeman in the area was there on parade. They stared at us and afterwards I was known as a friend of the chief and nobody ever bothered me again.
When I was living in the US I was approached by a government agent one day. They were looking for someone and found out that I knew this person so asked me if I would assist them in locating him. They asked me to try to phone him and some of his friends in an attempt to locate him and requested that I record the conversations. So, there I was in a public phone booth with a recording device making the phone calls. Someone passing noticed me there and thought that I was hacking the phone so called the phone company, who called the police. The next thing I knew was that two cops were outside the booth signaling for me to come out which I did.
"What exactly are you doing?" demanded one of them.
"I'm sorry officer," I replied. "I am unable to discuss it with you."
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