Coronavirus crisis: Almost 6,000 Romanians fined for getting out without supporting documents

Over 5,600 people have been fined for getting out of the house without having supporting documents to justify their going out or without having a justified reason, the Romanian Police announced after the first day of total lockdown.

The total value of the fines exceeds RON 7.4 million.

Over 12,000 police officers have been patrolling the streets in all cities in Romania, to check those who were going out.

Starting midday on Wednesday, Romanians who had to go out had to show either an affidavit, or a note from the employer.

According to the third military ordinance issued by the Romanian authorities, Romanians can leave their houses only for some specific situations, to go to work/return from work, go shopping, walking the pets, to go taking care of the elderly or children, to go to undergo urgent medical tests.

The affidavit must be either filled out and printed, or hand written, or saved on the mobile devices (phone or tablet).

Romanians who invented funny reasons to go out

A man from Suceava who had returned from Italy has been caught by the police while he was walking his 30 parrots and a dog. The man has been placed under quarantine.

The Police’s representative, Cosmin Andreica told Digi24 that some Romanians had come up with funny explanations when caught up in the act on the streets.

It was the case of a young man tracked down by a police patrol carrying “a fish in a bag of water”, claiming he went out to walk his “pet”.

Another young man was caught without an affidavit saying he was rushing to take care of his grandma. Checking the data base with the grandmother’s name, the policemen found out that she had been dead by ten years.

Another guy was driving his cat for 30 km in the city.

Another situation was in Iasi, where policemen met a man riding a horse. Initially the police thought the man made that up to get out for a walk, as the public transport was suspended in town, but they found out that the  22yo young man had ridden for 50 km from a village to go to the maternity hospital in Iasi to see his wife who was about to have a baby. He resorted to the horse as the buses from the village to Iasi had also been suspended.