Like some other people on this forum, in the past I haven’t been much impressed by Taiwan’s police. Seeing on-duty uniformed officers so drunk they can barely stand has something to do with it.
I’ve revised my opinion after our recent trip to Penghu. A few hours before going to the airport for the return flight I left my wallet in a coffeeshop in Magong. I didn’t realize this until we were in the airport, through the security check. Luckily my passport and ticket weren’t in my wallet.
On arriving in Tainan my wife called the police in Penghu and told them where I thought I’d left my wallet. Within an hour they called back saying they’d retrieved it (the coffeeshop workers had held onto it thinking I’d come back; there was no phone number inside they could call). The police listed the contents to make sure nothing was missing.
Yesterday afternoon the wallet arrived at my home via speedpost.
Well done, Penghu police. Thank you coffeeshop employees for not helping yourselves to the cash inside.
I thought you were being sarcastic with the title there.
In my experience, Taiwanese cops are utterly useless. Traffic cops standing there ignoring traffic violations but blowing their whistles and trying to look busy, cops carrying guns in their holsters when the only weapon they ever use is a digital camera, etc.
However, I’m glad you found one that actually had the extreme diligence and work ethic necessary to call the coffee shop, pick up the wallet and mail it to you. I’m sure if you write a letter, this dude will get a freaking award for this rare example of a Taiwanese cop making themselves useful.
That is heartwarming. Seriously though, you should write to his superiors. We all complain about how shit the police are here, so why not encourage more of the rare instances of good work? Then they might not be so rare. Naive? Probably. Still worth a try.
Nah, his co-workers will hate and ostracise him. They’ll put superglue on his truncheon and KY jelly on his sandwiches (or the other way around). Find out which cop shop it was and write a puff piece to the newspaper about the copshop in general. Doughnuts all round.
Steven,
How come you left your wallet in the coffee shop? Probably distracted by your perving at some barely legal age hottie in skimpy denim shorts. You dirty bastard!
I’m sitting in the park with a mate, drinking, of a Friday evening, as one does.
If you know my park, you know it’s a very popular turnaround/rest stop for taxis.
This one specoid had been sitting drinking antler wine etc. with his cronies, and had a freakin skinful. As we watched, he proceeded to try to get ready to drive his taxi, but he’s SO fucked up he honestly is having trouble negotiating the door.
We call 119 and say what’s going on.
Fewer than 3 minutes and there’s a growler with 3 cops there, they talk to him and then make him lock up and they take his keys and make one of the other (sober) dudes take him home.
Same park, another time.
Aside from me and my friends, this park is also a pretty popular hangout with the neighborhood’s varied and plentiful population of gluebrains, ragpickers, senile pajama shufflers, cardboard grannies, waterheads, and all the other detritus of a normal Taipei neighborhood.
So this one time, there was a bum who’d been hanging out there all day, I’d seen him three times as I passed by in the course of my day.
This happened to be deep Taipei February, and we were hitting 7s and 8s at night that week.
And this fecker had on shorts and a raggy T shirt.
I was returning home from a food run, it was probably about 8 on a Saturday night, and I saw this bugger lying on one of the benches.
When I got home, I had the Mrs. call 119 and tell them about him.
In the 2 minutes it took me to walk back to check, the cops were already there, wrapping him in a blanket and loading him into the backseat of the car.
I got no beef with these guys, they’re alright in my book.
Taiwanese police are similar to how British police used to be. Everything is about keeping things calm. They’re way too lax on traffic violations, but in general I think it’s good that police don’t interfere in our personal lives except when absolutely necessary. If two people have a problem with each other in Taiwan the police seem to me to try their best to diffuse the situation and stop things getting out of hand. In the UK now it appears the reverse is the case and everything ends up in litigation, often unnecessarily.
[quote=“almas john”]Steven,
How come you left your wallet in the coffee shop? Probably distracted by your perving at some barely legal age hottie in skimpy denim shorts. You dirty bastard![/quote]
I’ve been rumbled. I left the wallet there hoping the barely legal cutie would pick it, realize how fabulously wealthy I am, and beg to become my concubine. Not putting my contact details in the wallet derailed that plan.
Doughnuts (actually Xinhua sweet-potato cookies) and a nice letter are already on their way to the cop shop in question.
Please post name and location of said Maokong coffee shop , so that we may reward their honesty with good business (which actually means more work for the good employees and profit for the boss), but anyway, we post bad ones, lets post the good ones too. I’d go out of my way (at least a little, anyway) to spend my money at a place I knew had helped someone out.
I called in a burglary yesterday morning and they told me they would be straight there on the phone as I stated I couldn’t confirm if someone was still in the building and a colleague was missing. They blasted straight round in oh, around thirty minutes or so. One man on a scooter. And then he couldn’t enter the building as he had no backup. We proceeded to wait another 45 minutes for backup which didn’t arrive. I asked if I could leave and I was told I could go home. Considering I was the first on the scene to witness the scene, it felt strange that I could leave without leaving any details at all.
When in Taiwan don’t think too much about details, I have learned to understand.
Donutes [sic] on the corner of Zhongzheng and Huimin roads in Magong, Penghu - not Maokong. Their drinks are good but the cake we had could have been better…
