This story is a perfect example of what we like to call OVERREACH.

It comes to us from the pages of Reddit, and all I can say is that this cop should’ve kept his nose out of this business!

Check out what happened in the story below.

Policeman loses job over seal.

“This isn’t my story.

We all know how almighty the local law enforcement staff can feel and how they sometimes punch down on people, especially minorities.

Take solace, friends, in knowing a friend of mine ruined one’s career 😄 I know that was a vengeful entrance, please be gentle with me.

Some time back an old colleague and friend of mine was working as a truck driver, pushing around sea containers.

There are strict rules about this stuff…

Now I don’t know which laws apply to which country, but here in Germany only the customer may break the seal on one of those.

IF customs procedure has been done beforehand, dunno how that works, OR if the customs office explicitly grants you permission to open and unload, which they, of course, also can deny/withhold.

Mind you it’s just opening and unloading, paperwork would still have to be done and the customs office can block the goods, for whatever reason, or even drop by, even unannounced, to inspect the goods.

Did I say only? Nah; OR the customs officers themselves can break the seal to inspect the goods, for whatever reason they see fit.

There was a new guy…

Cue the new policeman in the local department.

A youngster trying to earn his stars and stripes (right, they don’t become OFFICERS anymore, cause the government seems to have realized, they still have scumbags abusing their power. And of course it gets costly 🤪).

This guy stops said friend, let’s call him Martin, for the sake of simplicity, for a simple traffic control (later gone out of hand), checks him, checks the papers, the documents, all good…?!

Nah; my man couldn’t find a thing wrong (remember you have to actually find stuff to get upgraded, which is why the fresh ones are so persnickety) and proceeds to go check the goods, the securing etc.

What do you think you’re doing…?

Martin instantly was like: “Whoa, whoa, whoa, dude, you can’t do that.”

The policeman: “Of course I can, I’m a police officer!”

Martin: “No dude, you’re LITERALLY NOT ALLOWED to do that.”

Policeman: “Yes, I am. Get outta my way!”proceeds to break the seal, opens up the container and so on.

Martin, who did his due diligence, quite calmly went to the front, grabbed his cell and called the local customs office and explained them the situation, that he tried to stop the madman.

I kid you not, before it was a truck and a police car on the sidelines (and trust me, police here sometimes take their time, letting you wait in the middle of winter, in the middle of nowhere for 3 hours, it happened to me before), in under 8 minutes (customs office is fast, if they get mad, apparently), the traffic was messed up like with a truck accident on a snowy highway.

I saw it from the window and thought: “God, am I glad to still be at work and not standing in line there.”

Uh oh…

Customs office pulled in with one sedan, which arrived first, the guy apparently shoved the policeman aside, calling him all sorts of names, like: “Are you outta your mind, you imbecile?! You’re a measly policeman, who in the actual **** did grant you permission to overstep your boundaries?!, yada yada yada” and so on.

Two minutes later, two more Mercedes Vito from the customs office showed up, a few more minutes later two sprinters from the BAG (literally translates to “federal office of cargo haulage” dunno why they called them in, but lemme tell you only the customs office is above these guys.

While the police are an “authority” the BAG is a federal agency, dunno how else to describe it, other than that they have a fixed set of cars across all Germany, police drive different brands in each state, and contrary to the police they don’t necessarily show up in couples, meaning they don’t need another guy playing witness for them.) and like half an hour later (figures) a few police cars, with the local chief.

What a mess!

Traffic was messed up for like another 2 hours, Martin had to leave the truck and the cargo at the local customs office’s parking lot and took a few days off (he was still required to either stand witness, or write a witness report, dunno which).

Customer was mad, there was a bit of damage, due to JIT and so on and the policeman apparently got fired rather quickly from what we’ve heard.

Martin was merely following protocol (you don’t want to be responsible for a broken seal, trust me), but was celebrated a hero for the coming weeks among the local truck drivers (apparently the police were quite sassy and intrusive lately).”

Let’s see what Reddit users had to say about this.

This person chimed in.

This individual shared their thoughts.

Another person weighed in.

This cop should’ve stayed in his own lane!

For once.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.