On Nov. 23, 2005 I moved to The Hague from Washington, DC. This is my new Dutch life.

3.16.2006

Europol Called

Seriously. They called here. Looking for Sharif (sp?). I've mentioned Ahmed and his mother before, but occasionally we get calls for Sharif too. I figure they are all related. I knew that kid was bad.

So the call goes something like this:

Voice on Phone[sing-song tone]: Hallloooo.

Me [Thinking it's B-]: Hey what's up?

Voice on Phone: Oh? Do you speak Dutch?

Me: No sorry. I thought you were someone else.

Voice on Phone [still a little sing-song]: Ok. This is Europol calling. We are looking for Sharif.

Me: Yeah, we get phone calls for them all the time, but it's the wrong number.

Europol [sounding confused]: This is not the number for Sharif?

Me: Nah, like I said we get calls all the time for him and for the mother of Ahmed, but they don't live here.

Europol: You see the last time he called here it came from this number, and we took note of that. And we believe that he is still using this number.

Me: Well, we got this number in December, so I think the phone company just turned over the number too soon. Like I said, we get calls all the time.

Europol [a little disappointedly]: Ok I see. And do you live at X street?

Me: No. We live at Y.

Europol: Ok, thank you. Good bye.

Man, the trail has run cold.

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

When my Mom moved out of DC, a largish Indian family bought her house. They were having bureaucratic problems getting the phone switched into their own name, so they just kept using it -- Mom's old phone number and all.

The multi-hundred-per-month bill they ran up was a little disturbing. But the worst part was that, speaking about as much English as you do Dutch, when people would call the old number asking for my Dad, they would just answer,

"Oh. Yes. He die."

And hang up.

I wonder if poor Sharif's Europol handlers are sitting by the phone with the same shocked feeling :-)

6:01 PM GMT+1

 
Blogger akaijen said...

Dude, I'm a big believer in turning everything off when I move. I have yet to hear of a time when it wasn't a problem.

What was a little fishy was that long about the time they were telling me that their callerID showed my number, the tone they took was that I might be harboring Sharif. And then you want to go, "Dude 9/11. I'm American. " And then you stop yourself b/c you don't want to come across as racist, but you can't help but have thought it. I suck.

6:32 PM GMT+1

 
Blogger akaijen said...

Ok. Fine. I admit it. I secretly hope that Europol stops by looking for him. Now THAT would be good television.

6:34 PM GMT+1

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just introduce Nigel as "Sharif" and Guy as "Ahmed"

7:52 PM GMT+1

 
Blogger Robert MacMillan said...

I want to be there when this happens. Try to see if you can arrange it. I doubt they'll surprise you. Too many forms must be filled out before they can raid your woning. or huis. or waatever.

6:31 AM GMT+1

 
Blogger akaijen said...

Definitely, but only if you bring Geraldo Rivera. He could try to redeem himself after that Al Capone's vault disaster.

11:06 AM GMT+1

 

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