The first person arrested in the United States in 2000 was a Russian. On December 31, 1999, at about 11 p.m. local time, New York cops made "the last arrest of the past millennium." In Manhattan, where New Year's Eve was already in full swing ...

The first person arrested in the US in 2000 is a Russian

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December 1999 at about 11 pm local time, New York cops made "the last arrest of the past millennium." In Manhattan, where the New Year festivities were already in full swing, the police detained a suspicious young man dressed in a bulletproof vest. Then it turned out that they were arrested in vain: the guy turned out to be a marine and had every right to celebrate the New Year in such equipment. The name of the arrested person has not been released.

But the name of "the first arrested of the new millennium" has already forever entered on the tablets of New York history. His name is... Konstantin Gudkov.

So, Konstantin Gudkov, born in 1979, who lives in Brooklyn, was arrested half an hour after New Year's Eve while trying to break through police barriers in Times Square, where two million people enthusiastically welcomed the arrival of the third millennium. Since he did not react to the exhortations of the guards, he was stopped and searched. During the arrest, Gudkov was found to have a pistol. There was no license for the "barrel". The arrested person was charged with "criminal possession of a firearm."

And one more funny touch of being Russians in America. On the eve of the New Year, the father of each family chose a darker night in order to go on a charitable deed - to steal a Christmas tree. The fact is that coniferous trees have a commercial value here only until midnight on December 24, and then they pass into the category of garbage. And at that very moment, a Russian-speaking client appears in a car at the empty Christmas tree market, for whom the real holiday is not this very Catholic Christmas, but the New Year.

This very type, having found himself, ironically, in the USA, but being faithful to Soviet traditions and mentality, looks around and starts poking conifers, tying them to the roof, stuffing them into the trunk, or even just into the cabin, after which he leaves with an open rear door.

What is surprising is that the power of Soviet ideas seems to be slowly getting the better of America. If in past years on Christmas night in the abandoned fir-tree bazaars here you could hear only our native obscenities, now, when we arrived "on business", we found a Negro family stealing the forest. And when we were leaving, other 100% Americans arrived to replace us, as if on schedule.