An American tourist has posted a vlog on YouTube about an experience where he claims he was “robbed by the police in Bali.”
The video, apparently shot on Nov. 13, starts out very much like a typical, tourist travel vlog. Sawyer Hartman and his girlfriend are exploring Bali and are getting tattoos.
But later on, they get pulled over by police for apparently riding without helmets.
Skip ahead to the video at 4:15. That’s when things get interesting and you can hear Hartman explaining he has camera on “for safety, for safety.” You get a quick flash of a police officer and then hear Hartman being instructed, “off, off, off!”
The vlog then cuts to the young couple, later debriefing the encounter with the police officer.
“I almost just got fucking arrested in Bali, or something,” Hartman tells the camera.
“The Bali police pulled me over and said I wasn’t wearing a helmet and that I didn’t have an international drivers license and tried to take 1.5 million of their dollars from me.”
Hartman says he told the officer he didn’t have the cash, but then the officer offered to take him to an ATM. The American says he refused, to only get asked by the cop: “So how much money do you have?”
“He looked in my wallet, saw I have 200,000 cash, took the cash out of my wallet, and said go, go!”
“We just got fucking hustled by the police in Bali.”
The American also mentioned he was at first offered the option of taking a ticket, but that choice didn’t pan out since he wouldn’t be back in Bali in December.
“I thought America was bad right now, Jesus, we just got hustled by the police in Bali.
“Welcome to Indonesia. Holy shit, let’s get home.
“I thought I was going to jail. I really did.
“You’re crooks, not all of you I’m sure, but you, you know who I’m talking to, you’re fucking crooks.
“I just got robbed by the Bali police.”
All things considered, while we’re not condoning extortion, Hartman didn’t even deny that he wasn’t wearing a helmet while driving or that he didn’t have an international license–both of which are violations. Throwing names like ‘crooks’ but also expecting to get off scot-free for not playing by the rules in Bali is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.
Road checkpoints are common in Bali, where traffic police check drivers for valid licenses and registration–though police do a get a bad rap for targeting foreigners. At the moment, we’re also seeing increased checkpoint activity during the nationwide “Operation Zebra.”
