Only in Italy

The weirdest thing happened yesterday. I ordered some Chinese food to go, walked out the door, threw my receipt in a trash can by the road, and then crossed the street via a crosswalk. As I was crossing, an Italian guy started talking to me. I'm to the point right now where I'm absolutely sick of the way Italian guys look at girls and try to hit on them. They eye girls head to toe as if they're pieces of meat. It's so gross. They need to get a life. Anyway, I kept ignoring the guy and saying "non parlo Italiano," but he began tapping my shoulder and then stopped me. He was dressed normal but pulled out his police badge and said "polizia!" He started rambling a bunch of fast spoken Italian. I had no idea what he was saying to me; I'm sure I had a confused look on my face. I kept saying "non parlo Italiano." Then, I finally figured out that he was asking where my receipt was. I told him it was in the garbage. He said, "por que" (why?). And I said, "cause I didn't want it." The "por que's" and my same response continued for several minutes. During this weird encounter, I was trying to figure out what I did to get stopped by a police. Did I cross the crosswalk at the wrong time? Was I not supposed to buy Chinese food in an Italian country? I seriously had no clue what was going on. The guy finally gave up trying to talk to me/fine me/arrest me or whatever the heck he was gonna do. I walked back to the hotel confused, trying to figure out this mystery. I told the girls what happened. They started laughing and told me that you must have a receipt for anything bought that's being carried around. What? How come I had never heard about silly rule? I don't know, but I now know why the police stopped me...he saw me throw my receipt away. Give me a break.