“There is talk of a possible kidnapping,” the control room said during our nightly surveillance shift. ‘We have a language barrier, can you go and have a look?’
‘There was a lot of glass in the porch of the terraced house. On the second floor, all the windows had been knocked out of the bay window and all the panes in the front door were broken. In the hall were two teenagers, a boy and a girl with a toddler on her arm.
“What happened?” I asked. The boy tried to say something in English, but we didn’t understand him. “Where are you from?” I asked.
‘He was from Bulgaria. I was born there myself and lived there until I was 20. After high school I spontaneously came to the Netherlands. I always wanted to join the police force and applied here. I feel at home here and I really enjoy it as a chief agent at the De Heemstraat office in The Hague.
‘We continued talking in Bulgarian. “A friend has been kidnapped,” the boy said. “She stayed with us because she had an argument with her partner. He came in here screaming and cursing, please help us.’
‘The kidnapper had texted his partner: ‘I’m coming for you.’ They heard his car coming with screeching tires. He smashed the front door windows with a hammer and let himself in. In the living room he smashed everything and pulled his partner by her hair off the couch. As he dragged her across the floor down the stairs to his car, he hit her with the hammer. “Who is he?” I asked. They called names, but those were nicknames, that’s typical of Roma people. And I asked, ‘Who has been kidnapped here? What is her name? Where does she live? Tell me. Now!’
‘On my phone they showed me her Facebook page. The girl pointed to a photo and said, “He came with that car.” My colleague checked the license plate, and that’s how we came up with a possible suspect. This was indeed a Roma man. I know that domestic violence in Bulgaria is common, not punishable and often fatal.
‘In the house we took pictures of traces of violence. There was blood splatter everywhere and there was a trail of blood where the woman had been dragged. Later, surveillance camera footage showed the suspect dragging the woman across the street under his armpit, with his arm in a clamp around her neck.
‘The duty officer came, he always comes in major incidents. “Yanitsa, you keep coordinating,” he said. I gave the toddler a trauma bear that is always in the back of the service car, the girl called her mother crying: ‘Mommy, the police are here, come quickly!’
“Her mother came from her night shift. She was friends with the kidnapped woman, and told in Bulgarian that her friend lived and worked in the Randstad during the week and stayed near Nijmegen at the weekend. She didn’t know an address near Nijmegen, but she did know that her mother lived nearby.
‘I said, ‘Now call that mother and ask for the address.’ During a video call in Roma or Turkish – I couldn’t understand it – it turned out that both of these women could not read and write. “Does she have anything with the address on it?” I asked. Two minutes later, the woman held an envelope in front of the camera with her kidnapped daughter’s address on it. I had colleagues from that region sent there via the control room. I was there investigating, coordinating and translating at the same time.
‘The Nijmegen colleagues called the officer on duty: ‘We are standing in front of the house and see the blue car with the registration number that you have provided. The car is covered in blood and there are two bloody hammers in it. We are waiting for permission to enter.’
‘I immediately got goosebumps and said: ‘This could be fatal. I demand that these people now go in without permission under Article 3 of the Police Act!’ Article three is the aid article, then you do not need permission.
“The duty officer looked at me and said, ‘Will you put this in your police report? I will call.’ They found the kidnapped woman lying in the shower, still alive. Her clothes were already in the washing machine, presumably to cover tracks. Her husband has been arrested.
‘I am telling this because this incident underlines how important diversity is in the police force. We must be a reflection of society. A large group of Bulgarians lives in The Hague and there is only one agent, me, who speaks their language. If I hadn’t spoken their language, that woman probably wouldn’t have arrived in time, and maybe never found.
“The victim has been housed at a secret address. I am now the contact person for the family. I’ve had their windows repaired, directed them to victim and other help, and keep them informed of the criminal proceedings. The suspect will soon be in court.’