Yesterday evening I was working at the newsstand where I spend my days...

Slow evening. Warm weather...
Then walks in a Maroccan guy. Wearing flashy clothes that are supposed to convey 'see me, I got cash', but in reality just shout 'I got no taste!'

He wants a packet of Marlboro's. I get it. I say, 'four euro's please' and he hands me a note of ten GUILDERS....

fyi; The netherlands went over to a new currency in 2002! Three years ago!

So I say; "You GOTS to be kiddin' me!", rather loudly. Imagine me frowning at him. Instead of saying; "oops, stoopid, my bad" he says 'you better accept it'.

I go "you're in euro-country now, we no longer accept guilders" More frowns from me.

Now he really gets angry. First he kept saying, i have been away, then, just when he is getting really angry, he shouts, "I just came out of prison! I got hundreds of guilders? What am I supposed to do! You better accept this!"

Here I made my final mistake, saying "Like, they have no television in prison? Wake up to reality man!"

Oooops...

Guy exploded... heeeheee
Thank the fruitmachine we had security (due to the Sail event in Amsterdam) that forcefully removed him. All our customers were going; and I just said;'"I hope he did not go to jail for killing newsstand salesmen"

That got a laugh...

What a job I got...

Brave little hamster.

Glad that you got security around

AndGodCreatedMe said:

uh huh!

sounds like you need a job change!

I have noticed how things seem to get more expensive after the EURO came in

ellieadore said:

Tell ME!

U hatezz the euro.

HamsterHuey said:

Pretty gutsy.... He could easily have pulled a gun on yo ass...!

MartyMcFly said:

If you only knew how many aggressive people we have...

HamsterHuey said:

I have always felt really safe in Amsterdam apart from one time when we had a knife pulled on us I guess no where is really safe these days

ellieadore said:

early Saturday morning before I met with everyone I walked around the streets a bit... went walking down one particular street and was approached by 2 guys seperately one was after money the other I don't know what for... I didn't feel safe tho so I turned around and walked back out again

Natisse said:

smaaaart...

HamsterHuey said:

lol I thought so... it wasn't really that bad but my instinct was sending alarms off so I was outta there

we have the Euro already?? dayum... I gotta get up from this computer finally...

don't get me started about Moroccans, last month one moroccan cab-driver threatened to kill me because he said the cab-ride from the U2-concert to my home was too short....

we do have a problem in Holland.....

you tell him gooey

abierman said:

just a question: any taxi driver in Amsterdam (Dutch and non-Dutch) hate short rides.... so what is the point of adding Morrocan to your story??? (maybe the threatening to kill you?)

feed the fear and yes we have a problem.

roverlo said:

as soon as you enter a taxi, you are the customer and the customer is always right.....like in business! This guy was pissed off because he waited long to get a ride, was hoping for a long one to some other city... After he found out it was only going to be a 5 mile ride (which is about 15 euros), he started screaming and, yes, threatening to kill me.
In Holland, a western european country, you do not, make threats like that, it is a crime. The fact that this dude was Moroccan does add some nasty flavor to this story.....look at recent history here in the Netherlands, the slaying of Theo van Gogh..... These people should know better by now, but they don't....

I added the Moroccan thing because in Huey's story it was also a Moroccan....

Feed the fear? I don't have since I have experienced it myself and see this country go down the drain....(and not just because the Moroccans.....before you call me an hate-monger!)

Just want to ad that me saying the guy is Maroccan was just to tell a story, not to set a certain mood. I, just as much as any other person, would love to see the news report "criminals of Dutch origin" as they are so snappy to report on non-dutch criminals.

So, that is out of the way.

Over and done.

ellieadore said:

I got mugged by some tramp with a knife last time I was in Amsterdam too, although I only had a few coins on me at the time but I had been smoking some funny cigs laced with some strange white powder so it scared the crap outta me!

Oh and I have absolutely no idea what nationality the guy was because everything looked kinda fuzzy.

must've been an awful experience . sorry to hear that

I tell them all to sod off
(When they don't accept no for an answer that is)
[Edited 8/18/05 13:21pm]

Dewrede said:

I don't blame you

I noticed he asked if I spoke English too

...(is it that obvious)

that must've been one stupid beggar

Steadwood said:

Maybe one out of one thousand people he approaches on the street will give him ten euros or more. He probably figured that
you didn't quite get the monetary value of the currency, hence the trying to fool you into depositing some more of the
good stuff in his lap for free.

I gave some money to a begger who approached me when I was camped out in a trainstation's main hall some hours
before the first train was due to appear. As he was making his way around the station's few inhabitants at that time,
I lost sight of him. About 90 minutes later, he got up to me again, as had he forgotton my face and the fact that I
actually gave him money already. That pissed me off.

Ikaros said:

I have just realised that it was 10 cents I gave him.... Which is what I intended

Round here they work in flaming gangs...camped out round the town centre...

Dewrede said:

I know...I can be kinda confusing..