(Newswire.net — May 7, 2016) — An old event untold by the media, recently showed that the law is stronger than any force. During the war in Kosovo, one local Romanian train station chief stopped a NATO military train because they didn’t have a verification stamp on their documentation, Blic, a Serbian newspaper owned by German media corporation Ringier Axel Springer cited Deutche Welle, who broke the story.
The NATO military train was on a strategic mission to deliver US radar systems which were flown in from Idaho to a base in Germany,then to the Romanian border with Serbia during the NATO bombing campaign.
The train, with massive military equipment was also packed with US soldiers and almost reached its destination when the local train station chief in a Romanian village noticed the military equipment did not have the customs stamp to prove it entered Romania from Hungary.
So, he stopped the train.
Florin Patracoju was the best in his class and was the ‘king’ of his train station in the small Romanian village of Pielesti, and he had zero tolerance for invalid documentation.
The train was already behind schedule due to various reasons and NATO command was anxious to set up the radar equipment sent from another continent to its destination only 3 miles away. The commanding officer from the train tried to explain to Chief Patracoju that there is a military operation in the neighboring country, Serbia, and that he had permission from the Romanian government to transport military equipment.
That, however, didn’t impress the train station chief who still asked for the stamp, threatening to send the train back to the border with Hungary to re-enter Romania the proper way.
NATO officials triggered the diplomacy channels and soon, Patracoju received a memo from the Romanian railway authorities to let the train pass. When he refused, his supervisors threatened to fire him if he did not comply.
Reportedly, Patracoju answered that this is okay but the authorities should first relieve him from duty, then to let another chief let the train through because what was asked of Patracoju was illegal. By his books, the US troops were trying to smuggle expensive equipment into his country.
Time was running out. The train was now seriously behind schedule and NATO command decided to waste no more time and acquired the proper stamps on the documents. However, there was now another issue. The train was at the station for a week and someone had to pay a sum of $45,000 for equipment stowage, in cash or a cheque.
Patracoju’s phone rang constantly. He received calls from various superiors calling him an idiot, a moron and more, however, the train station chief just said that the NATO train goes nowhere without paying the tax.
Shocked officials tried to reason with Patracoju, saying that NATO can pay the tax in Hungary, however, he demanded that order in writing, and got it.
Nonetheless, Patracoju noticed the person who signed the document was a freight transportation officer, and this train had passengers.
So, Patracoju informed the Bucharest officials that he was waiting for another signature on the document. He got that as well.
After train being held in the Romanian village for two weeks, NATO command learned not to mess with the train station chief, and acquired all the necessary documentation to continue to its destination.