Over the weekend I discovered that someone had stolen the locks from my gates, the metal gutter, and the energy efficient lightbulbs I stupidly left outside. I was ready to swallow yet another loss until a friend pointed out that this is why I have insurance! According to Hungarian (and maybe worldwide?) insurance practices, your house cannot be insured unless you build a fence around it. The logic being, "well, if they break in and there is no fence around it, how do they know the house is not theirs." achem. So armed with my insurance papers we went to the nearest police station in Szendrő.

The cop was very helpful and nice, and strangely overly enthusiastic to go check out the scene of the crime. THREE cops piled into a very nice police SUV and accompanied us back to the house.  After looking around a bit and taking notes and photos, and several telephone calls later to their superiors, a report was filled out. Now I have to go back on a weekday during work hours for the local detective (8-12) to file some other kind of report, but they were very helpful and friendly throughout, and not a one comment about me being a foreigner. So, off we go finally back to Budapest, when another set of cops from Szendrő stop us. Did anyone know that it is the law to keep your headlights on ALL THE TIME? A check to see if the lamps work and a reminder about the law, and we were on our way again. That evening, cops knocked on my Dutch friends' door. The said that someone had smashed their car window. The police had tracked them down by their lisence plate to inform them that their car was now at risk. It turns out that the window was not smashed, but the window had been accidentally left open, but in any case, saved by a friendly cop. Szendrő is having it's town celebration this weekend June 27-29, includingmusic and fireworks.