Popovic: how I was chased by the fbi and your own stories

[Neworld]

The LAPD was enough for me on a trip to the States.

Word to the wise: don't put your wallet under the driver's seat. And, if you happen to get pulled over for speeding on the way to the velodrome, make sure you're clear about what you're reaching for under the seat.

The gun-in-the-face screaming routine ("hands on the wheel, muthafuka!") can be daunting... if not pant-ruining...

Hee Hee.

My buddy and I went to the 1996 Summer Olympics to help cheer on Bauer, Barry and Eric Wohlberg. We had on cheesy Canadian shirts and were yelling at the riders as they road past. A Militia security guard (this was only days after the bombing remember) came by us and said "keep it down there, where are you guys from anyways Europe?" We looked down at our shirts and said "no Canada!" He then said, "see this gun, this isn't half the gun I took into Canada a couple of years ago, weez went 'unting". So I asked him where he went hunting..."Well, I was 20-30 miles deep in the heart of Canada and ya know what I found...nutt'n. Nutt'n but nutt'n"

I thought he was dangerous and he didn't even have a gun in my face like your story. Canada's not that bad, really. Maybe its just how we looked, who knows.

NW

 

[Kodiak]

Hee Hee.

My buddy and I went to the 1996 Summer Olympics to help cheer on Bauer, Barry and Eric Wohlberg. We had on cheesy Canadian shirts and were yelling at the riders as they road past. A Militia security guard (this was only days after the bombing remember) came by us and said "keep it down there, where are you guys from anyways Europe?" We looked down at our shirts and said "no Canada!" He then said, "see this gun, this isn't half the gun I took into Canada a couple of years ago, weez went 'unting". So I asked him where he went hunting..."Well, I was 20-30 miles deep in the heart of Canada and ya know what I found...nutt'n. Nutt'n but nutt'n"

I thought he was dangerous and he didn't even have a gun in my face like your story. Canada's not that bad, really. Maybe its just how we looked, who knows.

NW

Yeah, you canadians must have really scared that georgia boy... chances are that rifle or pistol he was carrying really was smaller than what he carries in the window of his pickup truck.

 

[webvan]

Wonder if Popo will be asked to "Light It Up" this year at the ToC!

 

[Merckx index]

The linked story makes it pretty clear, at least in the translated version, that Popo got his speed up to 220 kph before anyone was chasing him. It sounds like he was just joy-riding, then at a certain point was tailed. Maybe he suspected he was being tailed so went faster, but the story is very clear that he did not up his speed because he saw he was being tailed.

Even in a car, if you're going 220 kph, I'd say you're on something.

 

[Oldman]

The linked story makes it pretty clear, at least in the translated version, that Popo got his speed up to 220 kph before anyone was chasing him. It sounds like he was just joy-riding, then at a certain point was tailed. Maybe he suspected he was being tailed so went faster, but the story is very clear that he did not up his speed because he saw he was being tailed.

Even in a car, if you're going 220 kph, I'd say you're on something.

I'd say you are on to...the tail of a justifiably paranoid Russian who has been chased before.

 

[runninboy]

Sounds like the usual Carabineri "overkill" - had a bunch of 8 of them stop me when riding up the main road into Bormio a few years ago - four of them with what looked suspiciously like Uzi or similar light machine-gun/machine-pistols...... As if I was going to try a "Popo" on a bicycle up the Gavia or Stelvio

well they are actually a branch of the armed forces not just cops. So they have the military mentality.And weapons of course.
Back in the 70's my first experience with Eastern Europe was at a train stop on the Austrian/Czech border. I obviously looked American and two military police decided i was up to no good. I go to the bathroom and they follow me in.
Have you ever tried to go at the urinal with two soldiers with machine guns strapped to their chests watching your every move?

 

[Runitout]

well they are actually a branch of the armed forces not just cops. So they have the military mentality.And weapons of course.
Back in the 70's my first experience with Eastern Europe was at a train stop on the Austrian/Czech border. I obviously looked American and two military police decided i was up to no good. I go to the bathroom and they follow me in.
Have you ever tried to go at the urinal with two soldiers with machine guns strapped to their chests watching your every move?

Stage fright, eh?

 

[sheenyp]

Early 90s, checkpoints in Northern Ireland where two soldiers invite you to show them the contenst of your boot and you know damn well there are a couple of guys in the towers 20m away with their weapons trained on you and a round in the chamber!
Nice and steady .....

 

[thehog]

well they are actually a branch of the armed forces not just cops. So they have the military mentality.And weapons of course.
Back in the 70's my first experience with Eastern Europe was at a train stop on the Austrian/Czech border. I obviously looked American and two military police decided i was up to no good. I go to the bathroom and they follow me in.
Have you ever tried to go at the urinal with two soldiers with machine guns strapped to their chests watching your every move?

That's a Max Mosely wet dream.

 

[hughmoore]

It appears Popo forgot the part about how they found more then computers in his house and he is now co-operating with the investigation.

The speed at which this is unfolding is amazing, Lance definately wont win the TDF this year.





Hugh

 

[Benotti69]

The speed at which this is unfolding is amazing, Lance definately wont win the TDF this year.





Hugh

Tour de Federal? nope no looking good is it....

 

[Berzin]

Ah, this brings back memories of the good ol' state-sponsored terrorism of quite a few Latin American countries I've been to.

I've never been intimidated the times I've been hassled by corrupt cops or military personnel. I just play it off and once they see you're not cowering in fear they have a tendency to get bored with the game very quickly.

Just either pay the bribe and keep it moving or pretend like you don't understand what they're saying to you. Or let them finish with their job of searching your belongings.

By the way, the nicest cops I've run into?-Costa Rica. The most professional in attitude and demeanor?-Colombia. The worst attitudes and most blatantly corrupt?-Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.

 

[Kodiak]

I lived in Germany for four years and can say first hand that if you think the police in europe don't or can't do what they feel like doing you're in for a rude awakening. Here in the states it just about always takes either consent of the searched or a court order. Not that way at least in application from my experience there. If the caras decided that Popo had something then they found whatever it was they were looking for. He will either sing nicely or he's going to be Italian's boyfriend for a very long time.

 

[Ney the Viking]

Hah, all this guntalk reminds me of a train trip from hungary to the czech repuplic. After riding a while in comes this cute eastern european gal to check our tickets, and just as you are about to smile to her and get your tickets, you notice this guy behind her. He could easily have been a mafia hencman in your average holywood movie, armed with a tazer and a 9mm! And then you wonder what kind of people that normally uses the train you are on, that require the ticket controllers to be flanked by people that are better armed than the danish police :O

The trip was even better when we later crossed the border, and two guys in army uniform with freaking ak47's came to check our passports.

If Popo grew up with that, it's no wonder he is shaky if he forgot to pay for at ticket

 

[MacRoadie]

well they are actually a branch of the armed forces not just cops. So they have the military mentality.And weapons of course.
Back in the 70's my first experience with Eastern Europe was at a train stop on the Austrian/Czech border. I obviously looked American and two military police decided i was up to no good. I go to the bathroom and they follow me in.
Have you ever tried to go at the urinal with two soldiers with machine guns strapped to their chests watching your every move?

Try getting pulled over by the Federales a couple hundred miles down into Mexico. Takes the pucker factor up about 2000%.

 

[Barrus]

Seeing as this topic has moved to just people recounting their stories with cops I'll move it to the cafe.


Anyway just so I add something to the thread, once on a train going into Germany from Switzerland I just went to the toilet, some time after we passed the journal. Just as I was taking a leak someone knocked very hard on the foor and shouted something like: Ausweis bitte!. I walk out and there stand 5 very annoyed looking German Polizei looking at me as though I was some sort of illegal alien.

 

[Hmmmmm]

I lived in Germany for four years and can say first hand that if you think the police in europe don't or can't do what they feel like doing you're in for a rude awakening. Here in the states it just about always takes either consent of the searched or a court order. Not that way at least in application from my experience there. If the caras decided that Popo had something then they found whatever it was they were looking for. He will either sing nicely or he's going to be Italian's boyfriend for a very long time.

Oh, I don't know. Ever been pulled over in an inner city like Baltimore? Some friends and I went to a jazz pub in a "deep in the heart of Baltimore" neighborhood and when we left we were pulled over by undercover officers who pulled us from the car and shoved pistols in our faces telling us to shut the fuk up. They then proceeded to search the car believing and saying "I know there is something here". We let them do their thing, they checked our id, were ****ed that they did not find anything, and were on their way before we could blink. That was years ago and I still remember it as if it was yesterday.

I must say though that I have been to Mexico and Europe and the carrying of machine gun style weapons was much more common outside of the states.

 

[Cobblestones]

"Gänsefleisch ma da Gofferraum uffmache"

I still have nightmares.

 

[Oldman]

Try getting pulled over by the Federales a couple hundred miles down into Mexico. Takes the pucker factor up about 2000%.

No sh*t! We were taking stuff to an orphanage and pass thru a roadblock flanked by sandbag bunkers. The bunkers were filled with soldiers, 50 cal. tank buster machine guns and the soldiers looked like the meanest 16 yr. olds you ever saw. Once we cleared them we saw the constant presence of the Agribusiness Thugs that patrolled the corporate farms for union organizers in their black GMC Suburbans. All of this within 200 miles of the US border and 6 years ago. My friend says it is so much worse now with the rampant drug wars. Sad that such great people are forced to live in that environment.

 

[ksmith]

It's called a car chase and can happen in any country.

However judging by the speed I'd say he was on his bike and inhaled all the ampules in one go in an effort to get those extra 5-15%...

Nah, must have been driving Fred Flintstones car. yabadabadoo.

 

[VeloLIVE]

Yaroslav Popovich - new intreview in Russian - На Джиро буду капитаном and In English

 

[runninboy]

Try getting pulled over by the Federales a couple hundred miles down into Mexico. Takes the pucker factor up about 2000%.

actually no thank you. I made a commitment a long time ago when a close friend(best friends finacee) died a horrific death at the hands of the federales.
I will never set foot in Mexico.

 

[Frosty]

For anyone wondering whether what the current situation is, Popovych down to start the volta ao algarve.

http://www.cyclingfever.com/editie.html?detp=view&_ap=startlijst&editie_idd=MjE3MzY=