Open up, it’s the police!

I was traveling alone in a van and usually slept wherever I could park safely. One night I became too sleepy to continue driving and stopped at an isolated rest area. There were no other vehicles and no lights. I turned off the engine, closed the curtains, and went to sleep.

Before dawn, heavy knocking on the side of the van woke me. A man shouted, “Open up, it’s the police!” My heart began racing. He repeated the demand, and for a moment I wondered whether I had parked somewhere I should not have.

The situation felt wrong. Instead of opening the door, I moved slowly to a window and looked through a gap in the curtain. I could see the shadow of a man standing beside the van. His car was nearby, but it had no headlights or flashing lights. He was not a police officer.

I shouted that he should get away, that I had a gun, and that I was calling the police on the radio. I had neither a gun nor a radio, but the claim seemed to make him hesitate. He returned to his car. Then someone came out of the bushes and climbed into the same vehicle.

The car drove away. I waited a few minutes, started the van, and left in the opposite direction. I never learned what they intended, but I stopped sleeping at isolated rest areas and only used places where other vehicles were present. The encounter left me grateful that I had trusted my instincts instead of opening the door.