Feeling tortured by the music his father was playing in the car, a teenager in south west Germany made a desperate plea for help and ended up dragging the police into the family quarrel.
The 15-year-old in Rhineland-Palatinate scrawled a simple word on a piece of paper and placed it against the cars’ rear passenger window. It read: “Hilfe”, German for help.
The teenager could no longer take the Schlager music his father was listening to on the radio and needed an out. A concerned driver noticed the plea and called the police. After officers caught up with the father and son in Enkenbach they were able to confirm that the son was in no immediate danger.
The teenager was apparently unaware of the repercussions of his action, which the police proceeded to impress upon him. “Whether the father will start playing music that appeals to his son’s taste in the future is unclear,” police said. Schlager music is cheesy, sing-along pop music which saw its heyday in the 1960s. It has recently had something of a revival with many German men over the age of 40.