[Leica] Police/security harrassment

[rgacpa at yahoo.com (Bob Adler)]

I'm surprised she let you through with such a flattering shot!
;-)

Glad your tale had a happy ending, Douglas. I've heard some that don't...
Best,
Bob
 Bob Adler
Palo Alto, CA
http://www.raflexions.com




________________________________
From: Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie>
To: lug at leica-users.org
Sent: Sun, December 13, 2009 4:51:00 PM
Subject: [Leica] Police/security harrassment

This terrorism lark has made the world paranoid. I was in Bologna, Italy in 
Nov 08 and had the Rolleiflex and flash with me when we were all (camera 
club) heading back from dinner to our hotel for a post prandial drink. I 
spotted a couple of security men walking up the (public) street and one had 
a fag in his mouth. I whipped up the camera and took the shot and he went 
ballistic. Luckily I was with three others at the time as it got nasty.

He wanted to arrest me when I refused to give the film and there was a lot 
of shouting in Italian and a lot of counter shouting from me in English. We 
waited around on the street for 10 mins for the police, and eventually, fed 
up, I stumped off to my hotel telling him to follow me and if he wanted he 
could bring the police there. It helped that he was about 4 inches shorter 
than me!!

We went into the bar and just had a drink in front of us when the police 
arrived. Suffice to say, I wasn't arrested and kept the film <grin> The 
police were amused about the whole episode and were quite disparaging about 
the little complainer.

When I was in Frankfurt last weekend, I went off on my own to go up the 200 
metre high Main Tower with its viewing platform over the city. Security is 
very tight and it's like going onto an aircraft. A lady searched my gear at 
the entrance before I went through the detector and up in the lift. Having 
shown her the Rolleiflex in my bag, I forgot I had the little plastic 
Olympus SP320 in my coat. She looked at me queryingly & said "Camera...?" in 
a doubting tone. I quickly took this shot, showed her it, and said it was 
indeed a camera. I suppose most people in this world only carry one 
camera.....

Here's the shot.

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/Frankfurt/frankf13.jpg.html

Douglas
_________
Douglas Barry
Bray, Co. Wicklow
Republic of Ireland




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