‘It was horrible. Together with Peter Paul, who we always call PP, I checked a stolen car. As soon as we walked up to it, the two occupants ran away. We each went after one of them.
”Police! Stand still! You’re under arrest,” I shouted, but the man ignored me. When he couldn’t go any further at a fence, he turned around and came towards me, with a look like: I don’t like you. It later turned out that he had snorted coke.
About the author
Wil Thijssen is a police and justice reporter for de Volkskrant.
‘I drew my gun, took aim and shouted: ‘Stand still or I’ll shoot,’ but he kept coming. He looked contemptuously, as if he wanted to say: you shouldn’t do that, and he was right. Suddenly he grabbed my gun, which I held high and as far behind my head as possible. We got into a fight. I shot twice in the air and thought: I’m going to lose this, I need to have as few bullets as possible and clicked the cartridge holder out, so that there was only one bullet left in the chamber. We ended up fighting in the ditch.
‘He pushed me underwater and sat on me, almost drowning me. He took my gun, put it to my head and made me walk back to the cars.
‘PP stood there with his weapon drawn. My captor shouted, ‘Put your gun down or I’ll shoot her. Give me your car keys.’ PP put his gun on the asphalt and pushed it away from him. We walked to his gun, I had to bend down to get it, and then he had two guns. “Stay strong,” was the last thing PP said.
Hostage colleague
‘The man forced me to get into the driver’s side of our car. I had to crawl over the center console to the passenger side. Because our official car was an automatic, he could constantly press my head against the side window with my weapon. We heard all communications about a hostage colleague over the mobile phone. After PP said, “They can hear everything,” they switched to another channel.
‘We drove full throttle past a traffic jam on the hard shoulder of the A1, like in a gangster film. I was really terrified, I thought: he will shoot me or we will crash. The latter also happened – we crashed into the guardrail. I saw the hood curl up and my head hit the door jamb. I was bleeding and didn’t know for a moment whether it was from the blow or because he had shot.
‘He dragged me out of the car, pinning me down, pointed the gun at a woman who was standing still in a traffic jam, forced her to get out and pushed me into her car. When it turned out that she had taken the key, he threatened another driver. Out of fear of survival, I said: ‘Get out quietly and leave the key in the ignition, then nothing will happen.’
Hannie Schaft
‘We drove on towards Amsterdam. I had to switch gears on his command, because he held me at gunpoint. Because we were driving too fast, we were stopped by two police officers in Amsterdam. They knew nothing. They were shocked when they saw the gun, my soaking wet uniform and bloody head. I said, ‘Call dispatch and let us go.’ They did.
‘We changed cars again by threatening a man who was scared to death, and drove on, past the dome prison in Haarlem to the coast. I saw the dunes, thought about the book about resistance fighter Hannie Schaft who was shot in the dunes, and thought: now it’s over for me. In a deserted parking lot he said, “You can go.” I didn’t believe him, I thought: as soon as I walk away he will shoot me. I thought about my parents – how sad for them.
‘I got out. He drove through the parking lot, turned and came back. I ducked, but he continued driving. At the road, I stopped a passing car and asked the two occupants, “Will you take me to the nearest police station?”
Negative experiences
‘At the station in Zandvoort I was able to shower, a colleague gave me dry clothes and I was examined by a police doctor. At one point the door opened and PP entered with my team leader. I fell into his arms and had a terrible fit of crying.
‘That perpetrator was arrested during a shootout with the police and sentenced to ten years in prison. I wanted to turn the negative experience into something good and registered with the Collegiate Shelter Team to support other colleagues with bad experiences. My own experience allows me to empathize with them.
‘I thought I had handled the hostage situation well, but now I’m sitting here crying again thirty years later. Don’t call me a victim, I don’t want to be one. I’m fine. But you always carry the psychological scar after such an experience. That will never go away.’
