Shit pile - Essen

Suddenly, there is a barrier and a red and white guardhouse there. At this spot you cross the border between the Netherlands and Belgium. Next to the cottage is a post in which a cross and the letters KV are carved. This post is known as the shit post, because customs officers used to do their business behind this post.

KV stands for Klaveren Vrouwke. This is an alias of Geert Schrauwen from St Willebrord. A master smuggler who was shot dead by the border guard at this spot in 1916. He owed his nickname to his unusual modus operandi. Geert dressed up while smuggling. Regularly as a woman, because women were not searched in those days.

Shooting a smuggler dead was remarkable. At the time, most small smugglers got off with a fine and possibly a night in jail. Major smuggling operations sometimes followed a prison sentence of several months. But Geert Schrauwen was no sweetheart. Before his smuggling activities, he was already involved in a robbery; he was also suspected of a murder in Rijsbergen. Before he was shot dead, the Klaveren Vrouwke had been exiled from the Netherlands for allegedly stealing an army uniform.