The other night, I’m sitting at the bar with my dog and a friend, drinking a $350 cocktail when the cops show up. Over my shoulder, I see the street suddenly light up, flashing red and blue, red and blue. It’s the cops. “Probably just making their rounds,” I think to myself.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a few of them gathered around a guy smoking at the front door. “Was he stupid enough to be smoking something he shouldn’t?” I thought.
…No. A minute later, the guy comes in, followed by about 8 cops. We’re all told to get out our IDs.
OK – no problem. I put mine on the bar, and continue my conversation. The cops scan each person’s ID with their phone, 5-10 seconds later, they get it back. Then they get to me…
Next thing I know, I have 5 cops standing around me, scoping me out. “This isn’t good,” I think to myself as I feel my heart start to pound. “Excuse me sir,” asks one of them, “have you not been to work for the past few days?”
“No. I go to work every day.” I pull out my phone. “Here are some recent conversations I’ve had with my colleagues.” They seem unimpressed.
“OK sir, can you please step outside with us?”
“…”
So I hand my dog to my friend and walk outside. “Please talk to my boss – he can tell you that I haven’t missed work.” I call my boss – luckily he picked up (it was around 10:30pm) – and hand my phone to one of the cops while another asks me “Can you speak Chinese?”
“Yi dian dian.”
This other cop types into Google Translate “Our system shows that you haven’t been to work for the past three days.”
“I go to work every day – I work at 5 different schools.”
“OK – OK. Don’t worry,” the cop says just as the cop who’s talking to my boss hangs up the phone, “maybe there is some mistake. Let us check our system again.”
And the guy who was talking to my boss looks at his phone again, taps it twice and says “It’s OK.” And with that, all 8 of them pack up and leave in 4 police cars in literally 15-20 seconds, leaving me out on thee street scratching my head, wondering what fk just happened.
My boss calls me back, and I relay to him the story I just stated here…
Back at the bar, the bartender tells me “We’ve been here for 7 years and have never had anything like this happen. Our customers never fight or get too noisy. I hear that there is a problematic person down at the police station; this may be the reason this happened.”
Flash forward six days later, my boss is having all the other foreigners redo their ARCs mid-year so that they’re with one of the other schools he owns. This includes getting a police report, health check – the whole 9 yards.
I’m wondering – what funky sh-t could my boss be doing – or not doing – that may have caused my name to be on a list of people who aren’t going to their job? And why is he suddenly having everyone reapply for ARCs mid year? Should I be worried?
I am grateful for any insights. Thank you.
