The Rosie and Roula Show

109: Interpol Alert - Speeding Tickets and Wrongful Arrest: Rosie and Roula Personal Police Stories

• Roula Abou Haidar and Rosie Burrows

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This one’s got it all: reckless driving, flashing lights, corrupt customs officers… and a couch that might be the most uncomfortable seat in Lebanon. Rosie and Roula get personal and a little lawless in this week’s episode, sharing wild stories about run-ins with the police, driving faux pas, and a full-blown wrongful arrest (yes, really). 

From accidentally speeding on an empty highway to being detained with an Interpol alert on a child’s passport, this episode is funny, infuriating, and more real than you'd expect. Rosie’s clean record is on the line, and Roula owns up (kind of) to her rule-breaking ways with charm, of course. 

In this episode: 

  • What happens when the traffic police catch you jamming to music at 127 km/h 
  • How Rosie escaped a ticket by wearing a teacher badge 
  • The shocking story of Roula and her daughter being detained at the airport for 12 hours 
  • A crash course in Interpol alerts, sexist officers, and international travel headaches 

If you’ve ever been pulled over, speed-sung through traffic, or wondered what a couch in a Lebanese police office feels like this one’s for you. 

Takeaways   

  • Roula shares a humorous speeding incident with police. 
  • Rosie recounts a close call with a traffic stop. 
  • Traffic violations can lead to unexpected consequences. 
  • Cultural differences impact experiences with law enforcement. 
  • Roula's arrest in Lebanon highlights bureaucratic challenges. 
  • The importance of understanding local laws when traveling. 
  • Humor can help diffuse tense situations with police. 
  • Personal anecdotes reveal deeper insights into behavior. 
  • The role of authority figures in shaping our experiences. 
  • Navigating law enforcement requires awareness and caution. 

 

 

Keywords 

police encounters, speeding stories, traffic violations, Lebanon experience, cultural insights 

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Roula (00:01)
yeah. The police.

Rosie (00:05)
the police ⁓

Roula (00:06)
Okay,

and then maybe we talk about have you done anything illegal or have you been arrested by the police? But I don't know, I have lot of experience with this, do you?

Rosie (00:12)
Okay.

but that could be funny.

Roula (00:23)
⁓ No, no, let's just do the blooper and talk about something else.

Rosie (00:28)
be such a fun episode.

Roula (00:31)
Let's try. Let's try. We can always change our mind. All

Rosie (00:34)
Yeah,

Roula (00:46)
Rosie, we have this episode, what kind of driver you are? Episode 78. And it happened that in the past few days, my husband and I were watching. We call it in Dutch, weg misbruikers or, you know, the traffic police following people who are speeding, driving crazy. OK, we've been watching this yesterday. I was driving back to home.

Rosie (01:02)
Yeah, yeah.

Roula (01:11)
and the highway was not busy. I was on the fast lane driving 127 km per hour and checking in the mirror. OK, in the rear mirror. That's what you call it. Yeah, rear view mirror. And then in my head, I'm like, oh, the car behind the cars behind me. cannot be police. I mean, it's a Peugeot. It's a Tesla. It's a Range Rover. These are not police cars. It has to be like this fast Audi.

Rosie (01:19)
Hmm

Review Mirror, yeah.

Roula (01:40)
OK, and I'm checking my rearview mirror every 10 seconds. And then at a moment I checked and I saw a huge Audi police car with a big police on top of it right behind me, like asking me to slow down.

⁓ I OK. So what did I do? I I with control, of course, moved to the slow lane and I slowed down and the police was just like driving next to me, exactly next to me, slowing down. So I thought, OK, at this point, I have to look at them. What if they want me to stop? So I looked at the police officer and I hope people watching YouTube because he he did the gesture like what the fuck?

Rosie (02:20)
Yeah.

Roula (02:29)
Slow down with his hands.

And my response was like, I put my thumb up and reassured him with my hands and I kept driving 100 because the speed limit was on that road 100. And my goodness, how I felt like I could have been stopped for speeding and be on TV like this, what I think are losers. I can't wait to get home to tell my husband.

Rosie (02:38)
my god, yeah.

Surprised they didn't pull you over

Roula (02:59)
No, they didn't, because first I was regularly checking my rearview mirror. So when he was behind me, I saw him immediately. So I wasn't driving recklessly. The highway was empty. There were few cars on the on the slow lane, but there were no cars on the fast lane. No, no, I'm not. I'm saying that I wasn't driving recklessly. I was only speeding. And he really wanted to see who's in the car, because also the impression of who's driving.

Rosie (03:13)
Listen to you justifying yourself.

Only

Yeah

Roula (03:29)
right? ⁓ But when he looked so angry at me and gave me the gesture of what the fuck, slow down, I...

Rosie (03:39)
You're a rebel.

127 in a hundred kilometer zone. whoa. I think that is reckless. I don't care what you say.

Roula (03:48)
Yeah, I

was even planning to speed faster because I was listening, I was singing very loud and I was just having so much good time. But I knew, but I knew I have to be careful because the police might be behind me. Yes, so that was that this was terrible.

Rosie (03:56)
Having a good time. In your Tesla zooming around.

can't believe you got away with that.

I can't believe it. You get away with anything.

Roula (04:10)
I thought I'd this with you. Have you

been stopped for speeding or anything like that?

Rosie (04:16)
No, I've never got a speeding ticket or any sort of ticket ⁓ from the police. However, I do remember actually the closest it's got. When I was a teacher, I had finished school and I had to rush to the airport because I had a flight to catch. was really tight deadline. I didn't have long. And I was coming out of the little town and there was a stop sign. And before you turned onto like the highway. And I didn't stop.

I slowed down and then I, you know, floored it, put my foot on the accelerator. Like I'm in a hurry. And then there's a cop right around the corner. And he's like, pull over. Cause he's standing on the road, clearly trying to catch people doing exactly what I was doing. Must be a bit of a hotspot for that. I thought, shit, I got a flight to catch. Anyway, wind down my window. Luckily.

I was wearing my teacher badge that said Miss Burrows and he saw it. He went, ⁓ are you a teacher? I said, yes. He said, did you stop at that sign? I said, not really. Anyway, he said, try to set a better example for the kids. And he let me go. But I think if I wasn't wearing my teacher badge, he would have slapped me with a fine for sure. I was terrified. It's like, fuck no.

They're really expensive here. Yeah.

Roula (05:42)
Goodness,

terrible. I was fined and I had to have and they called me for a talk with the officer who determines if I should go to court or not. But I wasn't speeding I can't believe this happened to me. ⁓ I can't believe I did it. All right. So I'm on the highway. And, know, when there is a lane with a red cross, it means you cannot go on that lane.

Rosie (05:58)
What were you doing?

Mm-hmm.

Roula (06:11)
But that's my highway. Like it's two minutes from my home. I practically live on that highway. Who is there to tell me not to drive on the Red Cross lane? OK, I'm driving on the I didn't speed. was keeping the speed as it was at that time required to drive 80 kilometer. So I'm driving 80, but I got close to where

Rosie (06:19)
Hmm.

Okay.

Roula (06:40)
the reason why there's a red cross and he's taking pictures of cars driving on that lane. And I couldn't have any clearer picture of myself in the car driving on that lane. So like they caught me even smiling on camera. This bad. I got a fine of 270 euros and then a call. So I called and I was like, goodness, what am I going to like? This is horrible.

Rosie (06:58)
my god.

Cool.

Roula (07:09)
I do not break the law. that was the first time I do something like this. I do, obviously I did. ⁓ And I was telling this officer, know, I really did something wrong. I admit it. This was very foolish, very stupid of me to do this. How can I do this? I'm a mom. I teach my kids not to break the rules.

Rosie (07:12)
But yes you do.

You

You suck up.

You suck up! Yeah.

Roula (07:37)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, was like giving him this remorse speech that I have.

And thanks goodness I did because I could get also like a bad point on my driving license, which is really bad. And yeah, that was my learned lesson. Never, ever undermine these signs on the road.

Rosie (07:52)
Mmm... Mmm...

Except

for the speed limit, you still undermine those. I hope so.

Roula (08:07)
Yes, no, I'm gonna do better. I'm

gonna do better. Yeah, so that was my sharing of today about my experience with the police.

Rosie (08:18)
Thank you. Have you ever been arrested,

Rula?

Roula (08:22)
Yeah, I was.

Rosie (08:24)
There's a story. Yeah,

can you share it? You've got such a cheeky look on your face. No. Is it?

Roula (08:28)
Ooh, that's a horrible story. That's...

Okay, okay. We're traveling to Lebanon. My daughters and I My kid have a new passport because she lost her old one. And we arrived at the customs in Lebanon. They're checking our passport. They checked her passport and they took it. They went, they came back. They said, ⁓ there's an Interpol, ⁓ message about this name. I'm like, what do you mean? He said this passport could have been stolen.

Rosie (08:39)
Yeah.

my god...

Roula (09:03)
Like, no, this is a new passport. And then it rang a bell. When we reported her passport was lost, they reported it to the Interpol. We didn't know that this is the process. And she had her ID. But what happened, the customs in Lebanon, they wanted to of teach a lesson to the Dutch customs that they let us go. And they arrested us for 12 hours, my daughter and I.

Rosie (09:11)
Hmm

Yeah.

12 hours! my god, they detained you. my god.

Roula (09:33)
Yeah, they

detained us. So we were in this office of the responsible. I don't know what his rank is. And this so we entered the room. There's a cell full of illegal Syrian travelers. There were like eight men in a cell for maybe three persons. And he said to me and to my daughter, the cell is full. So that's why you can stay here on this couch. The asshole.

Rosie (09:50)
Yeah.

Wow.

Roula (10:03)
threatening us. So we sat on this black leather couch in the very old room with white neon lights. It felt like a torture room. And the guy was playing good cop, bad cop with me, the same person doing good, bad, good cop, cop. And he was very sexist. I'm divorced, of course. I'm Lebanese. I have a tattoo, big tattoo on my arm.

Rosie (10:15)
Mmm.

Yeah, yeah.

Roula (10:32)
My daughter looked European. There are a lot of prejudice. There is a lot of sexism in that part of the country at the airport. And then he wanted to know who I am, what I do, if my ex allowed me to take the kids. But I had forms signed by my ex that I could travel with the kids. We always do this, even when we were together, if I travel without him. And then I wasn't angry. I was very calm.

Rosie (10:41)
Mm-hmm.

Roula (11:01)
My daughter was 16 year old and she couldn't wait to leave. So she didn't really care about this entire process. She just wanted to leave. I didn't have any much on her. At 12 hours sitting there, my other daughter was waiting outside at the airport. So some of the officers gave her a cookie to eat because she was sitting there. And then she called my sister who were waiting for hours. What's going on? After like a couple of hours, they picked my daughter.

Rosie (11:17)
my god

my god.

Roula (11:29)
And yeah, we stayed for 12 hours until in the morning, the judge came and gave an order to release us. It was a horrible experience. Yeah.

Rosie (11:36)
Oh my god. Oh my god! Yeah!

That's crazy! Oh my god!

Roula (11:42)
Yeah.

And I had to stay in the country two more weeks because they didn't want to let us go, even though she has her ID, even though we have the right papers, her passport, etc. Just to make a point to the Dutch customs that they let us go with while there is an interpol on this name. So we every day in the morning at eight o'clock, we went to the police station.

Rosie (11:51)
my

Mm-hmm.

Roula (12:10)
waited

there to see if they can do something for us until my sister had contact with the Dutch ambassador or consul, his wife, and then she helped us to put a word to release us so we can leave the country.

Rosie (12:24)
That's wild. That

is wild. You're really not selling Lebanon for me right now. I don't want to go there because they're going to detain me and not let me leave the country.

Roula (12:39)
Ironically, none of the travelers to Lebanon had this experience. I if they don't have drugs and illegal stuff or entering illegally, no one had that. No, no, no. Yeah. And Lebanon as a woman, you're not allowed to give your nationality to your kids.

Rosie (12:45)
Yeah.

Cause I'm assuming your daughter had a Lebanese passport. she? ⁓ it's a Dutch passport. Okay.

Roula (13:00)
Yeah. Yeah. I did spend a month or two feeling suffocating from this horrible room and this cop who's playing good cop, bad cop. Luckily, after six hours, he swapped with another person because his shift finished and the other officer was really kind and he just didn't bother us with lot of questions. Yeah. ⁓

Rosie (13:01)
Wow. Okay.

thank goodness. Yeah.

But really, you

guys were smuggling something into the country, weren't you? You just got this cover story. You were totally up to something. You bribed them, I betcha.

Roula (13:36)
No, we weren't.

No, no, we don't need anything. We're not smuggling anything. We're not. Yeah. Well, what I what I take with me is mostly zaatar and ⁓ kishek. And these are ingredients, powder ingredients to cook here.

Rosie (13:47)
Yeah.

Elicit cooking ingredients. Wow. Wow. That's a pretty cool story. I don't have one to match that. Let us know everybody. Have you ever been arrested? Do you drive recklessly like Roula

Roula (13:54)
⁓ That's my story, Rosie.

Yep.

I was innocent both times. Thrice times.

Rosie (14:12)
Do you suck up to the cops to try and get out of things? You were innocent.

really? I think two out of three you were guilty, actually, but that's okay.

Roula (14:23)
Two out of

three, that's true. Two out of three, that's true.

Rosie (14:26)
Such

a rebel. All right, catching the next one everybody. Bye.

Roula (14:30)
Thank you, bye!