Incident at the not-quite OK corral

See text below - suspected fake policeman

Well I have given up trying to change Kitty's driving and am now working on the somewhat easier task of getting our aged dog Misty to perform back-flips using only mental telepathy.

Consequently the inevitable happened. We are waved over by plain-clothes police in an unmarked car. Kitty is terrified that she has been speeding (it is impossible to know what the speed limits are) and I am very concerned as I have heard bad tales of tourists being pulled over by the police.

But the police say no problem they are checking tourists because someone has been passing counterfeit money at petrol stations (we had just stopped at a petrol station). They want to check all of our money. Hmm suspicions arise but how far do you go in questioning the police in this country (there have been reported death threats against tourists who complained of police action !!!!). We show him our money. He checks it and sniffs it for drugs whilst I watch him like a hawk.

Then things start getting out of hand. Kitty is getting annoyed. the police are getting annoyed at this. The police say it is not safe to carry money on our persons and demand we put it in the glovebox. He keeps reaching into the car to 'help'. At one stage I have to snatch my money belt from his hand - cutting him slightly. Kitty is starting to get hysterical. I am trying to watch the police like a hawk and watch what Kitty does like a hawk. The police wants to see our passport, our credit cards and then Kitty's watch and ring. Panic bells ring louder and we spend the next 15 minutes trying to stop the policeman reaching into the car or handling more than one note at a time. Images of Midnight Express come to mind. Suddenly Turkey is a very dangerous place.

Eventually the police decide to shake hands and let us go. I have managed to get a secret photo of the policeman and their car (with the numberplate not visible as their boot was conveniently up). We leave hoping that they have taken nothing. Down the road Kitty discovers her watch and maybe $150 are missing. She does not remember even handing the watch over - and I did not see her do it.

We later discover her watch on the floor of the car. Did we lose $150. We don't know - if we did it was very cleverly palmed as I was watching carefully. Later at Pamukkale police tell us that the police are always in uniform. I now suspect that the car was a European registered car.

Next time we are pulled over I will have the camera out taking photos before we even stop. It all makes one very aware that in a foreign country you are in danger when anyone claims to be an authority figure and you do not know the system.

Fortunately if we were scammed we got off fairly lightly.