We arrived in Denver after camping the previous night in a national park. We had a quick walk around the city before deciding we were going to see a movie that night, while sampling some of the local legalised agriculture.
After the movie we were both relatively tied and decided to have an early night in the van. The movie car lot was reasonably large and empty, so we saw no harm in sleeping there for the night. Often in America if a lot is not available for boondocking it is well signed, this place was not.
At around 11 pm we saw a LED torch light shining through the front windscreen. I got up to see what the commotion was about, as I stepped out to be in sight of the passenger window I found two Policeman with their pistols aimed at me. Naturally in an attempt to not be shot, I put my hands up and opened the door. To my shock the leading cop said, "you scared the shit out of me", to which I responded the same.
He asked how many people there were in the van and if we were intending on sleeping here for the night .To which I explained our situation and also mentioned we were from Australia. The attitude of the conversation changed significantly from this point, he lower his weapon and exclaimed that he has always wanted to go to Australia. After chatting lightly for a couple of minutes, they asked to see out passports. Once our I.D. was verified, he explained that in the part of Denver we were parked in, was in fact Sheridan city, in this small 2 square mile area it was actually illegal to boondock, due to a much higher crime rate. We apologised and said we are happy to move, to which they responded that they were the only city police on duty in the area that night and we could stay.
They continued to ask about the trip; where we had been and where we were planning to go next. Even making sure we had not missed certain hot spots.
We shook hands and parted ways, our only regret being we didn't get a picture of a fake arrest.
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