In Germany, actually throughout Europe (with the exception of the autobahn) there are photo radar boxes all over the highways. Interestingly, when you’re driving around with a GPS, none of them should come as a surprise as they all show up on your map as you approach them. It took us a few days to understand how this worked.
This fall, a few weeks after we arrived home, I received a letter in the mail postmarked in Germany. Originally, I’d thought it was dough for the band, as we’d signed these papers that are similar to SOCAN agreements after every show. (In Canada, you can actually get paid by SOCAN if you perform in certain venues). But they weren’t writing to give me money, they were writing to tell me I owed money. Or we owed money. Inside the envelope there was a picture of the bass-player at the wheel with an accompanying note claiming that we’d blasted by a photo-radar box, 22 kms too fast, in small town Germany. Anyways, I emailed central bureaucracy in Bleifeld, DE, told them that it wasn’t me in the photo and promptly forgot about it.
A month goes by and I receive another letter. My pretending that the ticket had ceased to exist added an extra 20 Euros in late fees to the original amount. I wasn’t about to pay the $250, but I didn’t want the ticket to show up on my passport the next time I tried to clear German customs. I sat down and wrote them an actual letter explaining that I wasn’t the driver on the notice and sent it to back central bureaucracy, Bleifeld. Then I forgot about it.
Last week, I received one more letter. This one much shorter than the others, and printed in bold. All of these letters were in German, and would take some time to translate. I was mad at this one, so I left it on the table. A few days later, roommate’s girlfriend came over with some news. Her Dad is German, and roommate had taken the letter over to be translated. Turns out the last letter was written to inform me that the ticket had been pardoned, but that my name was going up on the Wall of Shame at City Hall in Bleifeld, DE, for the whole town to see.
