Foreign Affairs Police

I just want to say what an incredibly bad day i’ve had.

I has pulled over my the police today for talking on my cell phone whilst driving my car. I live in Chiayi which is the land of the broken laws. The police officer asked for my passport, which I don’t carry with me, however I did have my dogs vacination passport, which he thought was my passport and that I was lying to him, I showed it to him, it’s in Chinese, but he still didn’t believe me. So he called the Foreign Affairs Police and an officer came down. This officer abused me and yelled at me. I’d already had a bad day, and was already upset by something when I was pulled over (ie already had red puffy eyes) and thought I was going to be sick. I just had a huge panic attack when I got out of the car and then fainted in the middle of the street.

Well the Foreign Affairs guy just lost it, it looked like he was about to kick me when a woman came running over from across the street to help me. I couldn’t feel parts of my body and I was convulsing and hyperventialating. He told me if I didn’t get off the road he was going to tow my car away, then he told me I was pretending and a bunch of other stuff I was too stressed to here. The woman told him to leave me alone (in English, I think she was from Indonesia) and he said that he couldn’t as I was a criminal and I had broken the law and he to be punished. He then told her to go.

When I finally was helped up, I asked to sit down and he said no. Then he changed his mind, I could sit across the street whilst they towed my car. I was also told I couldn’t call anyone. Then he told me I was refusing to cooperate with him and that he wanted my ARC. I asked if I could sit in my car whilst I got it out of my bag, he still said no. I sat in there anyway. He then told me that he knew I lied to the policeman about my passport as he could see it on the other seat. I said no, it’s not it’s for my dog, he called me a liar, I showed it to him and he was pissed. I then got out my ARC and gave it to him. He then asked for my licence, which I had stupidly taken out of my bag the other day as it was getting all torn up. So I got a ticket for driving without a licence and taking on my cell phone. He then said I was free to go, there was no problem. Then the police officer did something but I was too upset to look.

The ambulance than showed up, I asked the Foreign Affairs guy to help me speak to them, he said I was stupid and everyone in Taiwan can speak English (???). The ambulance guy then asked him to speak to me for him, so he told them to go because he thought I was just pretending.

It turns out they have taken the licence plates off my car and plan to keep them for at least a week. I’m unbelievebly upset by all of this. I cannot even get to school and my boss says I have to take taxis everywhere. This guy really seems to hate foreigners.

I don’t think he particularly hates foreigners, at least not from what you wrote in your post. It sounds as though you simply freaked him out – it sure would have freaked ME out if I’d been him!
I don’t think they’ll keep your plates – just show them your vehicle registration to prove the car is really yours. You really need to carry it with you when you’re using the car.
As for the doggy passport, that must have been horrible, but at least you’ll be able to laugh about it one day (not today, I know!) and it’ll make for some funny dinner conversation – “The day the cops refused to believe I wasn’t a dog.”

Run yourself a deep bath, have a glass of wine – it’s not the end of the world.

Yep, unfortunately there are pricks and assholes in all jobs and all walks of life, and you just happened to hit the Goatse Goldmine with that guy.

God that sucks…

Of all the places and times to have an anxiety attack. Sounds like a real prick to me, but on the other hand, it may have been a matter of sensory overload for the poor bastard. First the doggie passport (priceless), then the panic attack…

I agree with Sandman, go down to the cop shop, get your plates back, pay whatever fines you need to and chalk this up to another truth-is-stranger-than-fiction experience.

No big deal…

I actually have the vehicle registration in the car. It’s registered in my bosses name he went down to get the plates and pay the fine and they won’t give them to him either. It was my drivers licence they wanted to see, but it’s in my other handbag (i’m a silly girl I know!), we were five seconds from my apartment and I offered to get for him.

The reason I thought he didn’t like foreigners was he thought I was lying from the start, he thought I was pretending to be sick and about the passport. Nothing I said could convince him I wasn’t lying. The way he spoke to me from the start was so rude. When the lady was asking me if I needed anything he was yelling at me and telling me I should be talking to him and telling me he was the police (he was in plain clothes) and then shoving his ID in my face. I told him before I even got out of the car I wasn’t feeling very well and thought I was going to be sick, thats when he raised his voice.