in berlin directly in front of many front doors of apartment buildings there is often a drain thing covered by a grill on the floor, which is welded to the cement, you know, so that excess rain can presumably flow into.
well one sunday morning 6:30 AM i got out of the taxi with all my gear from DJing all night, exhausted, all kinds of drunk and high. so i got to the door and was like "thank GOD I'm home... now i can just go inside and not even take a shower and just stretch out..."
so i take my keys out, and reach to put it in the door and... you know what happened next.
the unthinkable. i was staring down into the dark recess of the drainage hole like OH FUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKKK !
went to a couple of bars across the street that were still open, got some coat hangers and key chains and what not but as the sun came up i could clearly see that they were much too short. thought about calling my land lords but remembered they were in Tokyo for 2 weeks.
ok. so my only option was basically wait on the street for 3 hours and then call my friend and go crash at her place. and go couch surfing for 2 weeks until landlords get back.
did not sound good to me at that moment in time.
so as a last desperate measure, at the suggestion of some drunk kid walking home, i dial the berlin Police department. phone is answered within 2 rings:
"hi, i have a very stupid but very real problem, and i'm not sure if you can even help me..."
i was cut short:
"whatever your problem is, I'm sure we can help you. I'm sending a car right now."
i was like holy shit. wow.
and no more than 5 minutes later a car pulls up. and get this: 2 police officers step out, jolly as fuck, WITH BIG SMILES ON THEIR FACES, and say "how can we help you!"
"um. i'm really embarrassed about this... you see..."
they look into all options and in the end i took a rope they had and made a hook with a wire and they helped with the high power flash lights and i was able to retrieve the keys, which were almost entirely hidden under leaves and trash, miraculously, in a matter of minutes.
they were real surprised: "wow! good job!" and as they left i said "hey i'm sorry to have bothered you with this stupid bullshit..." at which they gave hearty laughs and said: "it's OK we don't have anything better to do this morning anyway! at least it was a good laugh!"
.....
my conclusion?
1. be careful at all times despite being, especially when, fucked up.
2. berlin cops are fucking cool.