In times of crisis, minks help even top traffic cops survive
According to Lenta.ru, the former guardian of road order plans to move to Denmark and get a job on a fur farm – skinning minks. An additional piquant detail is that the man who held no minor post in Latvia's third-largest city is no stranger to the role of migrant worker. Thanks to Latvian journalists, the head of Liepaja's road police was nicknamed 'guest worker in epaulets' – this happened two years ago when it became known that Kleinsbergs spends every vacation on one of the Danish animal farms where minks and other fur animals are bred. As the 'skinner' himself admitted to the Riga newspaper Telegraf, in five weeks of 'hired labor' he earns as much as in five months of managerial work.
There is nothing illegal about a police officer processing skins in his free time, Kleinsbergs said then – especially since one salary (even if it's the salary of the head of the city traffic police) cannot support a family, and there is also a mortgage to pay. The chief road policeman of Liepaja, who had 'served' in law enforcement for over 14 years, had to take a second job at a private security company, but even that did not help the family's well-being – and then he had to seek fortune abroad. The owners of the fur farm where Kleinsbergs worked knew that in his homeland he was a 'big shot,' and were very surprised by this fact.
According to the ex-chief, back in the pre-crisis year of 2007, many Latvian police officers were actively seeking opportunities for side jobs. 'Salaries are not increasing, and life is getting more and more expensive. I already know many police officers who, like me, go to Denmark during their vacation to work, and not just rank-and-file officers, but also department heads,' Kleinsbergs complained then.
However, Madars Kleinsbergs explains his final transition to the status of a guest worker not only by the lack of decent pay for police work, but also by disappointment in his job: as the former chief traffic cop of Liepaja admitted to the Latvian agency Delfi, over years of service he tried to eradicate corruption but could not do so. Now Kleinsbergs plans, after finally moving to Denmark, to bring his family there, and in the foreseeable future to find a job in his main specialty – to become a police officer. But at first, as the ex-chief admitted, he will try to find work as a mailman or, more realistically, return to the owners of 'his' fur farm.