American woman fined for offering $100 bribe to German passport control officer

BERLIN — An American woman was fined after attempting to bribe a police officer at the Munich airport’s passport control over the weekend, according to German federal police.

The 70-year-old was traveling from Athens to Washington with a stopover in Munich when she attempted to go through passport control without presenting a valid ID, police said.

When the passport control officer told her she needed a passport to enter the flight area, the woman said she had accidentally left her passport on her previous flight from Athens to Munich.

However, when the officer went to ask the airline Lufthansa whether they had found it, the woman pulled out a $100 bill and asked the officer to let her through without a passport, according to police.

German authorities refused her entry on the flight and fined her 1,000 euros ($1,122) for attempted bribery. Since her passport was not immediately found, the woman had to remain in Munich until she was able to get a new passport from the U.S. Consulate, police said.