An unexpected encounter for the police in Aerdenhout last Saturday night. After being called by an observant local resident with a report about a suspicious man with a pair of pliers, officers went to investigate. When they stopped the suspect, it turned out that they were not dealing with a burglar, but with the mayor of the municipality of Bloemendaal.
The search for the mayor was still some feet in the earth. The Kennemer Kust base team reports on Facebook that after the report, officers closed all escape routes in the neighborhood so that no one could leave the area unseen. They finally found the suspicious person unsuspectingly, after a 45-minute search.
Mayor Elbert Roest was there on a nightly walk. “I try to take 10,000 steps every day. If that doesn’t work, I’ll go for a walk before bed,” he told the officers. He also didn’t have pliers, but a waste peg, to clean up some stray waste during his walk. A good example of “a fit mayor who cares about a clean living environment”, the police team writes.
Although Roest can see the humor in it, the incident did make an impression on the mayor. “It has something special when a police car jams you full in the headlights,” he writes on his Facebook page. “Maybe I’ll put on a yellow vest next time.”
