Olof Nilsson usually travels to Scotland to play the bagpipes with his band. But when he was due to travel to Edinburgh in October last year, he missed his flight – because of his antique bagpipe.
– I had promised my band that I would come there, and I keep what I promise, so all I had to do was buy a new ticket for 3,000 kroner more, he says.
Because his instrument contains details with ivory, a so-called CITES musical instrument passport is needed. It is not the first time that Olof has agreed that this process needs to be done and it usually does not take long. But this time everything went wrong.
Olof arrived at Arlanda about an hour and a half before departure – but the message from the Swedish Customs was that it would take two hours to do the check. And it was a particular statement that surprised Olof.
– You can talk about my jaw dropping when they asked if I had a whole elephant with me. It would not have taken more than five minutes if they had known their job, he says.
That’s how he handled the setback
When he realized he was going to miss the flight, his irritation rose.
– It’s frustrating to the max. It gets even more frustrating the longer time goes by. As I missed my check-in time at the accommodation I had booked, I had to find a new one there as well, he says.
How did you handle it?
– It was just a matter of biting the sour apple. I had a pilsner or two at Arlanda to calm down a bit and then I called back to the customs house and asked what the hell they were doing. But they knew nothing.
The anger after the rejection
But then he got to talk to a woman whom he describes as a fiery soul and who, according to Olof, admitted that her colleagues had made a mistake. In the end, he requested damages of SEK 6,800 because he had missed the flight.
Although the Swedish Customs Administration admits that they took an abnormally long time, the Chancellor of Justice announces that there will be no money for Olof as he did not arrive in Arlanda in sufficient time.
– Then you feel like packing your bags and emigrating from here. I wouldn’t mind moving to Scotland. This is so wrong that… I don’t know how an attorney general can reason so damn wrong, frankly. It’s like the clocks stop, he says.