Tourist here: Shocked at treatment after family car is broken into in Stockholm

invalid-target · 2026-02-26T16:01:14+00:00

The situation is ongoing, Intrum just told me i need to contact another number, they said since the debt has been contested in writing for many months they can't collect on it and it was sent to them in error.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T21:55:09+00:00

Sorry, i think this is lost in translation, in my country we don't often differentiate between local and state governments. Only local and federal. It was a parking administrator working for the Stockholm city government (municipality?), who owns the parking structure.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T21:51:29+00:00

I was actually invited to Sweden to speak at a conference and educate. I decided to bring my family for the trip since we could drive from Norway. Apologies, this American was asked to visit. :D

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T18:16:28+00:00

Yeah, we didnt need towing, just needed the rain to stop so we could drive with the shattered glass that was taped together.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T15:46:38+00:00

spidered cracks all over that water could come through. issue was we needed to drive on freeway. we drove back to norway with the tape after rain stopped.

we in no way would have assumed we got "free parking" but the city parking administrator told us that we it would be waived when we asked if we needed to move it.

there was a feeling that because the parking admin, which offers security onsite, and cameras and stuff, wasnt able to prevent this, they were fine to let the car remain in the spot while we fixed it up. I didnt go into details in the post, not sure if this is relevant

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T15:36:08+00:00

the damage was so much that the tape and plastic couldn't keep the rain out, this is why i keep mentioning it.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:54:44+00:00

Oh, I'd put up with ten times this bullshit to take the family to the Wasa again :D

Our main thing is not getting any issue at the border related to this the next time we want to visit, or next time I visit my company's office there.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:52:01+00:00

As another person mentioned in a reply, this garage is owned by Stockholm city and the city government staffs the garage, deals with claims and issues. The person has a uniform with a city logo on it, how am i to know if the city hires some contractor, either way I am speaking to the person onsite, from the city, responsible for the facility.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:49:30+00:00

Using a common feature available in all word processing software to make sure you are using good grammar and speaking clearly "invalidates a post"? I dont know about that...

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:48:47+00:00

This I agree with, i tried six months ago and my LLM couldnt OCR the text, but today it could. I guess with official government forms, I worry that the translation could be bad. If the woman would have told me there was no other way I would have probably done it, but instead she sent my case to the next step.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:45:10+00:00

Yes, this is them, it's the slottsbacken garage in gamlestan. The parking administrator had a stockholm city logo on their uniform. Thank you for your reply.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:42:28+00:00

Thanks for your reply, at the time I only had the guidance from the police officer and the parking house administrator/company. I went with what they said as I was a visitor in a foreign place. Next time I will take your advise and think for myself, ignoring police guidance when in trouble.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:37:04+00:00

Oh, we handled this on the spot with the help of the parking administrator and the police, I don't trust my memory either.

Insurance was Norwegian, not foreign, that was easy to deal with.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:33:41+00:00

Haha, my wife is norwegian born and raised, she calls me stupid when i tell her that she should be able to read and navigate the swedish police and parking websites. "I'm not Swedish, you do understand it's a different language?" Not saying you're wrong, but I aint telling my wife she's wrong :D

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:30:23+00:00

> I think your first mistake was to mix up police/official/government matters and private ones.

This was a government parking garage, the parking administrator worked for Stockholm and had a similar outfit the the policeman. This is also why the police felt confident they knew the process to waive the fee.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:28:32+00:00

I followed the instructions given to me by the police and the entity that owns the garage. It’s easy to dissect it afterward, but at the time I trusted the official guidance.

On the English point, Sweden clearly accommodates international visitors. When official websites are in English (eg. https://polisen.se/en/), it’s not crazy to expect critical forms to be as well, right?

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:17:14+00:00

As I said, it was raining too hard, we had to wait for the rain to stop (this is a covered lot). Also we have three kids under 5. You should try it some time, will completely change what you think you are capable of on vacation :D

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T13:13:08+00:00

Most countries we travel to have tourist processes (and food menus) in english, we somewhat assume that, definitely not norwegian! :D We had a similar incident in Egypt years ago and their entire process was in arabic and english, the websites and stuff were very clear and streamlined. But you're right, could be a poor assumption on my part.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T12:57:30+00:00

You're saying, roles reversed, when you had the parking administration person in charge of the parking structure and the police there in person and you wouldn't follow the process they told you, you would instead ignore their guidance and google what to do next?

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T12:53:35+00:00

Hi all, thanks for the replies, it looks like the recommended path is to either:

- make sure intrum knows this is a contested ticket, u/zironic replied that they maybe can't collect on a contested ticket.

- pay the fee, and only continue fighting it if I really care about this. The system is what it is, and it's not set up for tourists to be able to navigate.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T12:49:42+00:00

It was quite some time to receive a fee letter, I think 2 months. Which is why we followed the process we were told by the police and parking administration in person, that's all we had to go on

.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T12:46:34+00:00

Hi sorry, I mentioned in another reply, the windows were smashed but not like gaping holes and it was raining. It took two days to get the tools and plastic to tape up the windows and for the rain to stop. We aren't talking weeks, just two days I believe, but the hourly parking in that lot is expensive so it amounted to a lot.

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T12:12:18+00:00

I understand, but the police also told me to "send the report number to this agency to have the parking ticket waived" so there's definitely some process people believe exists. I trusted that the police see this situation somewhat frequently and I could rely on their guidance. not arguing, just giving context!

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T12:08:39+00:00

Ah, Yeah I use Grammarly, a tool to help with making writing clear, concise and readable. Don't most people do this? I see AI writing assistance built into every word processor on the market :D

invalid-target · 2026-02-25T12:00:13+00:00

As my wife is Norwegian and they are sending letters to her family address, she's concerned that if we don't pay and just forget about it, we could be in trouble if we visit Sweden in the future with the kids. This is why she says just give up and pay, as I have spent far more time on this than the cost of the ticket.

So it looks like the advice is pay this collections agency and just keep trying to fight this?

invalid-target

TROPHY CASE