At approximately 4AM (PST w/ DST) this morning, I awoke to the warehouse door being flung open and cops with flashlights and guns yelling at me. I still can't figure out it if this is a bad dream. They ask me if there was anyone else in here, and I hear myself saying that to my knowledge I am the only one. I have my hands up and they ask me to please step out into the hall. In my bedclothes, I shuffle out. I figure maybe they'd chased someone into my building and because I'd forgotten to throw the latch, maybe someone's gotten in without me noticing. I count about six police officers. Maybe seven.
A policewoman makes me sit on the cold concrete outside against the big metal door of the adjoining space (barefoot, bedclothes here). She's got what looks like flashcards asks me if I'm on parole or anything. Asks my name and date of birth, taking everything down. I'm still pretty groggy at this point. Cops are moving around in my space. I guess she goes off to check the records about me. A big asian guy with glasses is my babysitter. He looks pretty awesome in his uniform and utility belt. I try not to shiver. I ask him what's going on. If they maybe were following somebody or got a tip or something.
He says it's because the hallway door was open. ?!? But they've got the guns and flashlights and, WTF? He explains that it would be different if it were a residence and I'd left the gate open. He tells me he's been working this neighborhood a while and never seen the door open at night. We've been trying to make sure the door stays closed at night, but I've been here two years and it's open plenty. At their prompting I explain that there are six units off this hall and which ones do what.
I envy one guy's turtleneck. They ask me what I do here. What the space is for. Seen a lot of liquor bottles. They ask me what kind of movies I make. How much my rent is. How long I've been here. I answer all their questions.
The policewoman who interviewed me before comes back and asks me my name a DOB again, looking at the card she'd written before. I tell her. I spell it again. She asks me if I have a driver's license. I say I do, that it's inside. She asks me where. I tell her it's upstairs. She asks me where upstairs. I tell her I can come get it. Did I mention that there are six armed, presumably trained cops here? I'm a big dude, but even if I were so inclined there's approximately zero possibility of me getting the drop on any/all of them. She insists that she get it. I tell her where the wallet is. I'm fucking freezing at this point. Raining outside. They're probably warm in their body armor. It's more friendly now. No one has touched me. But it's still intimidating as hell.
It's some sort of cock-up with a confidential block on my records. Hooray, I exist. They search some more. I feel weird. They tell me that I should keep the door closed.
If there was an apology, I didn't hear it. They don't even close the big door. They just walk off, joking with one another. I slam the big door. I think later they're patting each other on the back. Stupid civilian. Leaving the door open. Don't they know how dangerous this place is? Fuck anybody could come in here.
Registered: Sep 2000
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posted
Well, duh. But I mean is an open door really probable cause for coming in with weapons drawn?
As you might imagine it was terrifying. I've been shook up all day. I mean they weren't abusive or anything, but it seems to me like they performed an illegal search of my space without a warrant and without my permission. They didn't even ask me whether the space was mine. If they'd asked, I would have been happy to show them around. I could have put on some pants, shoes. Would a simple apology have been asking too much?
Registered: Sep 2000
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This is the US, right? Does the police even NEED a cause to do random raids nowadays?
For all we know your place could be an Al-Quaeda international headquarters!
-------------------- Lister: Don't give me the "Star Trek" crap! It's too early in the morning. - Red Dwarf "The Last Day"
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
They probably hoped for some gus making drugs or something that woul get them a citation or an "attaboy" from their CO.
How you can leave your door open like that is beyond me though: probably to the cops as well.
On the bright side, if you were being robbed/tortured/raped or anything else from a Tarintino movie, the cops would have arrived like the calvary.
Good for them: they did not screw around when they thought something was fishy in your building.
Bad for them: No apology to you. that's totalbullshit.
Bad for you: letting that cop go for your wallet. They could have planted anything they wanted in there, while you sat on your doorstep.
Is anything broken? Did they go through any drawers or look at your computer at all?
Those would be serious fuck-ups on their part.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
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posted
Cops, of course, never cop to anything.
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
I believe (and take this for what it's worth from my Law & Order world) the police need either probable cause or a warrant to enter property. If they had time to call a back-up team, they may have had time to get a warrant, which in turn might've given them the right to search through all your crap. But, they would probably be required to show you the warrant, or at least tell you they had one. I can't iamgine they had one, though, as an open door hardly seems justification for a search warrant.
My guess is that they entered on "probable" cause, which most likely gave them the ability to search the premises for reasons of securing it, but likely not to search through possesions. Anything they found in plain sight, though, such as all that bomb making equipment and survivalist literature you have laying about, would've been fair game though
posted
Oh, quite real. I wish it was just a story. And technically it was my place of business. I just sleep there a lot. Gas is up to US$2.40/gallon and it's a pretty long haul home. I explained this to one of the cops.
To my knowledge they didn't touch the computers, noticed them, but didn't touch. The only thing I know they opened was a little painted box near my where my wallet was. To be fair, it looks like a stash box. It has a bunch of foreign coins and dice as well as a few old hair thingies of an ex-girlfriend in it. The reason I know they opened it is precisely because this box was a gift from my ex, and as that story is a particularly painful one, I keep the lid on it. Hadn't opened it in years.
I mean the door into my unit was closed. I just hadn't set the interior latch. What can I say, I was profoundly tired and I grew up in a nice neighborhood? The option of giving my permission for them to search was never even there. Even if I'd been allowed to be there as they searched, I would have appreciated that as I could make sure they were just looking for a criminal. Fuck, I would have appreciated a pair of slippers and some pants.
Registered: Sep 2000
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