At 99, Annie Had One Unusual Wish Left: She Wanted to Experience a Police Cell
Most people spend their entire lives hoping they will never find themselves in handcuffs or behind the locked door of a police cell.
For Annie, a 99-year-old woman from Nijmegen in the Netherlands, it was exactly the opposite.
After nearly a century of living on the right side of the law, she had an unusual experience on her bucket list: she wanted to know what it felt like to be taken to a police station, put in handcuffs, and sit inside a police cell.
It was not a joke about committing a crime. Annie had no intention of breaking the law simply to satisfy her curiosity. In fact, the unusual nature of her wish came from the fact that she had lived such a law-abiding life.
She simply wanted the experience.
And in February 2017, local police decided to help make it happen.
What followed was not a real arrest and Annie was not accused or charged with any offense. Instead, officers at Nijmegen-Zuid arranged a carefully staged experience that allowed the 99-year-old to see a side of police life that ordinary citizens are normally never permitted to experience.
The resulting photographs captured something that looked very different from an ordinary day in a police station.
There was Annie, sitting behind the barrier of a police cell with handcuffs around her wrists — and wearing an enormous smile.
Her unusual adventure soon traveled far beyond Nijmegen, becoming an international human-interest story and reminding people that even at 99, there can still be new experiences waiting to be crossed off the list.
A Wish Nearly a Century in the Making
By the time someone reaches 99 years old, there are not many everyday experiences they have not encountered in one form or another.
But Annie had managed to avoid one particular experience completely: trouble with the police.
Reports about her story consistently described her as someone who had never committed a crime. According to Lieutenant Peter Smit of the Nijmegen police station, Annie had never broken the law but thought experiencing a police cell would be exciting.
That distinction is important.
Annie did not actually need to be arrested. What she wanted was to experience the unfamiliar world associated with an arrest: the police car, the handcuffs, the cell and the feeling of being on the other side of a locked door.
Her wish eventually became known to officers through her niece.
The Guardian later reported that Karlijn Baalman, then chief of police for Nijmegen Zuid, explained that Annie's niece had shared the unusual request. An officer subsequently picked Annie up in a police vehicle as a surprise.
Other contemporary reports similarly said that the idea reached police when Annie's niece came to the station in connection with reporting a crime. Once officers learned about the elderly woman's wish, they decided to see whether they could help.
It presented them with an unusual problem.
Police cells are not normally tourist attractions.
People cannot simply walk into a secure cell complex because they are curious about what the inside looks like. Dutch reporting at the time noted that civilians generally were not permitted inside such areas.
But Annie was approaching her 100th birthday, and officers recognized that this was hardly an ordinary request.
They decided to make an exception.
A Very Different Kind of Police Pickup
The experience was arranged for February 23, 2017.
For almost anyone else, seeing a police vehicle arrive to take them away would be a source of considerable anxiety.
For Annie, it was part of the adventure.
An officer picked her up and brought her to the station. There, police recreated several elements of an arrest without pretending that Annie had actually committed a crime.
She was placed in handcuffs.
Then she was allowed into a holding room or police cell for a short period.
Dutch outlet RTL Nieuws reported at the time that civilians normally could not simply enter the cell complex, but that police made a rare exception for Annie, allowing her to sit briefly in a holding room while wearing handcuffs.
The Independent reported that Lieutenant Peter Smit said Annie remained inside for only a couple of minutes.
There was no criminal charge.
There was no allegation of wrongdoing.
There was no real imprisonment.
The entire event existed for one reason: to give a 99-year-old woman the unusual experience she had wanted before turning 100.
And judging from the photographs, Annie enjoyed every moment of it.