Held as a Robbery Suspect

Near the end of my mission, I was assigned to work with a new missionary and sent to open a new city for missionary work, Schwäbisch Gmünd. Prior to my assignment, our mission did not have missionaries actively proselyting in Schwäbisch Gmünd. So "opening" the city meant my companion and I would begin actively proselyting in the city. The nearest congregation was located in Göppingen (about 25 km away). So, my companion and I moved into the apartment with the missionaries in Göppingen.

Every day, my companion and I would take the bus from Göppingen to Schwäbisch Gmünd in the morning, work in Schwäbisch Gmünd all day, and then take the bus back home in the evening. Because we were opening a new city, most of our work involved "contacting". We would either go to the city center (Stadtmitte) and talk to people or we would go to a neighborhood, knock on doors, and hope someone answered to door to talk to us.

One morning (Monday, November 29, 1988), we rode the bus to Schwäbisch Gmünd and went directly to an apartment complex to teach a lady we had met on the previous Saturday. We taught her the first discussion and challenged her to accept and read the Book of Mormon. She seemed like a nice lady. After the discussion, we chatted briefly about our experience of living in Germany. She kept the Book of Mormon but was not interested in us coming back to teach her again.

As we left the apartment complex, two men approached us. They showed police badges to us and asked us to go with them. The took us to the Police Station. At the station, they took our passports and left us in a room. One officer came back a few minutes later. He asked us several questions about what we did on the previous Saturday (e.g,. where were we, when were we there, what were we doing, etc.). I explained that we lived in Göppingen and only came to Schwäbisch Gmünd during the day. I showed the bus schedule to the officer and explained which bus we took to get to the town and the one we used to go back home. On Saturdays, the bus schedule was limited. So, we had only been in Schwäbisch Gmünd for about 2.5 hours. We spent that time in the city center.

The police officer also asked about whether it was just the two of us or whether we had a woman with us. Then he explained that on the previous Saturday a jewelry store in the city center had been robbed. Two men in long trench coats had robbed the store. I assured the officer that we had 1) not robbed the store and 2) not been accompanied by a woman.

My companion had only been in Germany for two weeks. He did not speak much German. He was REALLY nervous because he did not understand what the officer was saying. I explained to him what the officer had said.

The officer took us to a hallway and told us to wait on a bench. We were a short distance away from the elevator. He said that he was waiting for the jewelry store owner to come and identify us.

After about 15 minutes, the elevator doors opened. The officer and another man stepped out of the elevator. They walked down the hallway to where my companion and I were sitting. The man looked at me carefully. He looked at my companion carefully. Then he turned and nodded to the officer. The officer smiled and they walked down the hallway into an office.

Now, I was really nervous. It appeared from the man's body language that he was claiming that my companion and I were the culprits. I started wondering if we would be taken to jail. I asked myself, "Do I get a phone call?" Would I be given a fair trail? Or, was I already convicted.

After some time, the officer came back out of the office. He gave us our passports. He escorted us to the front door of the police station. Then he pointed to the Bahnhof (train station, which was also the bus station) and told us to leave town and not come back to town that day.

I thanked the officer and promised that we would leave town.

We went directly to the Bahnhof, got on the bus, and left town.