Marian Godina is a traffic policeman in Brasov, Romania, who has
acquired more than 150,000 Facebook fans because of the funny
stories he posts about his day-to-day adventures as a cop.
Now a distinguished publishing house in Romania, Curtea Veche,
the same firm that published recently the President's biography,
will issue a book this weekend which collects Godina's stories.
Those who have pre-ordered a copy will receive their book with
the author's autograph, so Marian is spending the next few days
signing all the copies that are piled on his desk.
It is not so common in Romania for a policeman to be an author of
humorous stories about the citizens' reactions to their encounters
with law enforcement. Some reactions are hilarious, some are a
bit stupid. One citizen organized a petition that asks Facebook
to remove the account of an embarrassing incident, but seeing
the popularity of Godina's website and the nationwide publicity
for his book, the solicitation for petition signatures has ceased.
Because the duties of policemen require them to stay in top physical
condition, you might run into Marian Godina out-of-uniform at a local
fitness center in Basov, but now that he is so famous you will surely
recognize him and maybe you can ask him for his autograph.
ALLAN CRUSE
15 FEB 2016