After contacting us by phone at the end of January, he decided to send us a registered letter anyway. “I ask the editorial staff of Ziarul de Gardă to publish the material exposed in the letter, that the police in Edineț illegitimately took my motorized tiller “Vela” to fine me, so that they could live on it. I, a lonely man, having no power from anywhere, they want to leave me hungry on the roads. Please do not reject my complaint”, writes reader N.

As the letter lacks the circumstances under which the citizen’s motorised cultivator was taken away, we contacted the Edinet Police Inspectorate to find out the reasons why this transport unit intended for agricultural work was taken away from owner N.

Anatolie Gonța, acting head of the Edinet Police Inspectorate, confirmed that the tractor was taken away following calls from citizens of the village, who claimed that the owner of the tractor was driving around the village in a drunken state.

“The motor-cultivator is at the special parking lot until all the circumstances are clarified”, Anatolie Gonța told us, adding that it would be illegal for this agricultural equipment to serve as a transport unit in rural or urban areas. Commissioner Gonța also said that the breathalyzer test showed 0.95 units of alcohol at the time of picking up the tiller. On the other hand, citizen N. says he had not consumed alcohol that day. “Yes, I eat garlic every day. Maybe it’s because of garlic,” he says.

Commissioner Gonța insists, however, that until the circumstances of this case are clarified, the tiller should remain in the parking lot.

“From 0.3 to 0.5 g/l of alcohol in the blood (0.15 to 0.30 mg/l of alcohol vapour in the breath), the offence constitutes a contravention and is punishable by a fine of 17 500 to 25 000 lei, with suspension of the right to drive for up to 6 months”, reminds Anatolie Gonța, urging all those who own transport units, including those intended for agricultural work, not to get behind the wheel if they have consumed alcohol.