Re: 4:25 AM Police Visit?
I can't speak for everyone but I would not have allowed them to enter my house. They had no probable cause to think the call was real. Obviously there was no yelling and screaming when they pulled up. As for dropping the gun. I might have responded by saying show me some id.
Any one can show up at your house in the middle of the night shining lights into your face claiming to be the pd. As a matter of fact that would be a good scam for a home invasion tactic. See what I mean?
Re: 4:25 AM Police Visit?
Never open your door at 4:25 AM.
Most of the trouble flows from that initial mistake. If they were bad guys, you'd bypass every protective measure that you've set up by opening the door and placing yourself into a situation of their design. The best locks and the stoutest doors are useless if you open them on demand.
If they are good guys, they should stand outside your house for a while and listen to the quiet. A phone call from some random person is not a warrant to enter your home. Unless you're OJ and there's a history of wife abuse, I don't see any urgency.
People have lost their dogs in similar circumstance, where there were no prior crimes at the address, no obvious evidence of criminality. Some cops seem to view every dog as a threat and a target. Strangers knock on your door at 4:25 AM and expect you to accept the burden of proof that YOU pose no threat to THEM.
Next time, talk to them from a 2nd-floor window. Or call 911 and get patched through. DO NOT OPEN YOUR DOOR. After you open the door and share air space with cops, there is literally nothing that you are allowed to do to prevent them from doing whatever they want. Sure, you can try suing them later, but you can't raise a hand to stop them from disarming you, from searching the house, from shooting the dog, from cuffing you and the wife and the toddler. They are MUCH less likely to break in a locked door just to pursue a warrantless investigation, and you have NO OBLIGATION to come outside.
Cops have tough jobs. If my sister was being hacked to death n her home and a neighbor called in a report of the screams, I would want and expect the cops to investigate. But that doesn't negate the Constitutional safeguards.
I'd definitely follow up on who filed the complaint, that information is only protected to a point (and a lot of that changed with the new PA right to know law). A civil lawsuit would likely make that available.
Re: 4:25 AM Police Visit?
Sorry to hear about the rude awakening. Hope you can find out who made the call and press charges.
Personally I'd never let anyone I don't know into my house. I don't care what they are wearing. I've seen reports of Bad Guys doing such things and no good came from it. I'd either talk to them through the door or go out to talk to them. They have no right to enter unless they have a search warrant.
I'll leave it at that and let the more knowledgeable give their opinions.
Re: 4:25 AM Police Visit?
+1 to all of the above.
I would have called 911 and verified with a calltaker/dispatcher that there were LEOs actually at the door. After positive ID, I would have stepped outside to talk with them. If you're a diabetic and had a syringe lying on the table, they would have been all over the house looking for drugs.
Glad things worked out peacefully for you. You can petition your county call center for the record of the call. If the LEOs requested a number be assigned to the call, all information will be complete, complaintant included.;)
Re: 4:25 AM Police Visit?
1st. I would have never dropped the gun until I knew for a fact that they were PD.
2nd. I would not have let them into the house without a warrant period! I may have offered to step outside but that would be all.
3rd. I would tell them they either were mistaken or have the wrong address and would like to go back inside and go to bed. If they refuse and force me to comply with any illegal requests I would. But I would be calling my lawyer in the morning.
Re: 4:25 AM Police Visit?
#1... Welcome to PAFOA! Something tells me you're going to find this place to be an incredible resource, I know I have!
#2... Awesome 1st post, and thanks for sharing this. I, for one, am looking forward to the various responses.
#3... My own lack of experience with situations like this prevents me from offering any kind of advice, but I am sending a +rep to you for putting your experience out there and inviting responses... well done!
Re: 4:25 AM Police Visit?
Can't comment on the visit directly. However, I just want mention that motion sensors around the house would be beneficial in identifying people in the middle of the night. Nobody can approach my front or back door without setting one of three sensors off. In fact people walking on the sidewalk set the front sensor off. At the very least they could help you I.D. the good guys if they show up at 4AM again.
Re: 4:25 AM Police Visit?
Look up your address with the first 3 numbers of your zip, see what come up.
Many who live on a "Center" "Ridge" or "Penn" street will understand,
To give an example, Center street in Allegheny while calling 911 could come out to 15 or 20 places, giving the town is no use, but cutting down to the boro or township will help.
Unfortunately, many people do not know what exact boro ow township they live in.
If you have an alarm system, (I don't remember reading you disarmed it) call your central station to see if there was not a "Panic" alarm for your home. Many times people will trigger a silent panic with their key fob and not realize it, then call us asking why the PD is there... As a general rule, the PD will not tell you why they are there.
What you might have done, rather then blindly let them in is call 911 and ask why there are police at your home.
As some one said, this could have been a ruse to get in your home as a hoe invasion. Uniforms and badges are pretty common to the people who do this, so not a good indicator that you are really dealing with the PD.
One more thing you might consider is if you pissed off any one lately who might want revenge. Unfortunately, there are people who will go to a phone booth (rare these days) or use a throw away phone to make a call of “Domestic disturbance” that can not really be traced back to them.
Some thing similar happened to us here, the PD come knocking in the middle of the afternoon asking if all was ok… Fortunate for me, I know my local PD and the one who came that day is a very good friend of my neighbor. Turns out, based on a post my wife put on her “Myspace” a ‘Friend’ OF hers thought she was suicidal, and knowing she had guns in the house, decided to call the police on us from Washington state…
Army mom buddies they where, turns out my wife was venting on her blog saying how our Son had not written her in months from Iraq, she could be dead and he would never know… This was enough to spark the call to our local 911 from a friend. (An anti gun friend) who right away thought this would turn out to a bloodbath from an uncontrollable woman in grief of her son…
Re: 4:25 AM Police Visit?
Hey GL, you forgot the kitten stomping. Oooppps, that's ATF, sorry.
Bam, welcome to the forum.
I had something happen a while back myself, not to the extent of yours. Late night, 2200 or so, banging on door. I looked outside, and saw a PSP car in front of the house, and a 5'4" female PSP Trooper at the door. I answered the door, .45 held behind my back, just in case. The Trooper was very nice, looking for another address, which I told her how to get to.
At 0425 a banging on the door, with or without "this is the police", is responded to by me in a barricade position covering the door with an M1A. To many home invasions. Someone else in the home will call 911, and if they where responding to a disturbance call and pulled up to a dark home and no noise they can go away. Where I live I would also call our Public Safety force and let them check to see if they are the popo. If they shoot the PSO, then I know they are not the popo. If OK then I would step out to see them.
We can only do what we think is right at the time. Situations like yours are very dynamic, and every second things change.
I would a least want the info from the call about the disturbance.