The cliché says that young people in the country can get bored. Especially in summer, when everyone goes on holiday and they are the only ones left in the village. Hanging out by the pond? You’ve already dived through it to the bottom as a young kid. Kicking the ball around the sports field? Oh, that gets boring at some point. And just driving away? Yes, that would be something. If a bus or something would take you. But without public transport and a driver’s license, even the neighboring town seems a long way away. That’s why the Bavarian Forest rappers from Spruce Cartel: “I don’t have a car, I’m going to die in Zwiesel.”
So if you want to avoid death by boredom, you have to be creative. There is plenty of time. And the young man who was recently stopped on his longboard by a police patrol in Bad Kötzting (Cham district) can hardly be denied his ingenuity and patience. Normally, you push this extra-long skateboard with your feet or let yourself drift down the slope. So it was perhaps a little odd that the young man was firstly riding uphill and secondly doing so at a good 30 kilometers per hour.
Upon closer inspection, the officers discovered that the board had a motor built into it. With such a tune-up, it would have been possible to reach speeds of almost 50 kilometers per hour, according to a report. In terms of traffic law, “the approximately 18-year-old driver” would therefore have had to have a class B driving license. But he didn’t. The fact that the Bavarian authorities refuse to register motorized longboards proved to be at least as problematic – and homemade power is rarely completely risk-free anyway. The tuning specialist is now facing several charges. As if that wasn’t bad enough, he also has to walk: the longboard was confiscated.
The police report is silent on the motives behind the trip. But it is clear: too much of it fits the cliché too well. In any case, the young man whose urge to move was so abruptly stopped will have to find another summer activity. How about music? You don’t even have to be able to compose yourself. A possible new interpretation would be: “I don’t have a longboard, I’m going to die in Kötzting.”