I bet you smart mouthed them.
I tried to go into the Netherlands once from West Germany and thought my Army ID card was enough, it wasn't I needed a passport all they did at customs was to hold me and then put me on the first train back.
Anyway, didn't smart mouth the guy. Just that he couldn't read my three-day pass (which I had to have along with my ID).
This was a young border guard guy on a Sunday afternoon ~ probably doing overtime.
They'd had some trouble with German speaking Italians at the time, so the border guards were touchy.
Turnedout the guard knew German, he knew Italian, he knew Serbo-Croat, and some other Slavic languages, but he didn't know English.
My German was "bad" ~ but my Latin was much better, and so was his.
Explanations were figured out, his machine pistol went back over his shoulder, and I was released to cross over into Germany.
Lots of fun. Only other time I ever had to use Latin was in Luxembourg at a gas station.
My Latin is now quite rusty.