223. Getting Arrested Like Winona Ryder
How could I forget (must've blocked it out) almost getting arrested in Germ? (oh that's the new word for Germany now) When we were in Baden, the first few months and I was trying to buy everything for the apartment (and that was TOUGH lemme tell you, I didn't even know where to look, what to say, to find basic things like toilet paper!) I went to a big store called Real. This place is kinda like a Target but not as good or as cheap (in fact nothing is as cheap as the States). Well I was spending tons of our Euros there, buying everything from groceries to vacuum cleaners. Anyways one of the trips there I was at the cashier spending exorbitant amounts of money and I went through a sensor and the alarm went off. I was nicely excorted into the back room by a Germ security officer into a room filled with other Germs. NICE! being that it was still my first few weeks of being in a new country! They told me to empty out my purse and I happily obliged knowing that I didn't steal anything. So there was all the contents of my heavily stuffed purse on the table, Prada wallet, tampons, keys, umbrella etc...I stuffed everything back and they were discussing things between themselves in German. Then I was escorted by 2 people walked through the entire front of the store while others Germs were gawlking at me to a customer service counter. Then I was told to walk through the sensor, once by myself (no beeping) then with my bag (beeping). So the Germ asked me if I had anything and in my broken German and plenty of english, I said I had nothing in my bag and they could easily check it again. In the meantime, my 200 Euros of groceries were in the cart melting. Finally they figured out (and with me digging through my purse, scrambling to find out WHY I was beeping), that there was a security sensor in my purse from Zara. So after my empty purse kept beeping through the sensor, I put everything back in my purse, the customer service Rep handed me a PEN and said sorry and I was on my way. Humiliated and devastated with melted ice cream, I went home after another Happy Day in GERM!!! Never went back to the store and never will.