Yesterday, our second full day in Graz, we had the misfortune of being targeted by fake police while waiting for a tram at the open air lower level bus stop in front of the Graz Hauptbanhof.

A man approached us, showed us his ID stating that he was a police undercover, and demanded to see documents. I had read about these fake police from travel reviews back in the US and I had informed Marc about them.

Thus, when he insisted that we show him documentation, we refused and told him point blank that we knew of this scam. When he kept telling us he was the police and kept asking for documentation, we stood our ground. Sensing danger, we walked away, slowly at first then briskly. He followed us up the stairs and tried to stop me from leaving by holding on to my backpack. Shortly thereafter another person appeared, this time, a woman, and likewise told us she was the police and grabbed both Marc and me. Marc began to scream "Help us!" at the top of his lungs and so did I. By this time, people had heard our cries for help and people beagn to look. Still, the two supposed police undercovers did not let us go and kept grabbing us. Despite the people around, no one came to help.

We were hoping police would come but we had no such luck. We told them that we wanted to go to our hotel which was close by and they agreed. By this time, the woman couldn't believe the scene that we all caused. Both looked startled by it all.

The man first said let's go to the police station and Marc and I both agreed. We changed our mind along the way and told them that we would rather go to our hotel which was close by.

By this time they let go of their grip and walked with us. Upon entering the IBIS Hotel, we saw that there was a check in lady on duty at the lobby and told her what happened. We couldn't believe the two scammers had the audacity to follow us and continued to ask for our documents there.

We took out our passports, gave it to the two people, and they perused it. We told them that such practice was illegal. They left.