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Old 03-08-2016, 11:47 PM
 
Location: Caverns measureless to man...
7,588 posts, read 6,602,681 times
Reputation: 17966

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Quote:
Originally Posted by steel7 View Post
I would never let the police into my home without a warrant.....period.
Just about any attorney worth a damn will tell you the exact same thing. There is absolutely no good reason to let a police officer into your house unless you called them and asked them to come. I don't even open the door or acknowledge their presence. Police at your door are not your friends.
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Old 03-09-2016, 07:24 AM
 
Location: Northern Virginia
1,474 posts, read 2,291,700 times
Reputation: 3289
I stopped reading this thread after the last comment I made, but here's a rep comment I received:

Quote:
Acting suspiciously is exactly why the police have probably [sic] cause.
Not answering the door is "acting suspiciously?" Are private residents required by law to answer the door every time an unexpected visitor knocks?

What if the police got tired of me not answering the door, then acquired a key from the landlord to let themselves in, or used force to break down the door? Would that have been legal?

Please remember, I was sitting in my apartment quietly doing absolutely nothing that day other than a lot of thinking & hair tweezing.

And what if I hadn't been home at all, and the officers decided to find their way in? Would that have been legal for them to do?
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Old 03-09-2016, 07:40 AM
 
Location: Northern Virginia
1,474 posts, read 2,291,700 times
Reputation: 3289
Quote:
Originally Posted by convextech View Post
"One Saturday I was trying to get up the courage to go on a rafting trip with some other young single people from my church. But I kept having anxiety attacks just at the thought of meeting new people in a new situation, I shamefully never got up the courage to leave my apartment that day."


Could it be because you promised to go on a trip with your church friends and then you stood them up?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ciceropolo View Post
perhaps your friends who you said were going on a outing were worried and one of them knew someone in LE and called to see if you were OK (knowing you get anxiety attacks).
Nope. The people on the rafting trip had no idea who I was, and I had no idea who they were. Only the person who organized the trip might've had my email address, nothing else. Certainly not my home address. The rafting trip was a casual thing, anyone was welcome, there was no accountability.
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Old 03-09-2016, 09:08 AM
 
Location: Living on the Coast in Oxnard CA
16,289 posts, read 32,270,302 times
Reputation: 21891
This happened 15 years ago. The retired older couple does not remember it, if they are even alive anymore. The cops that came knocking on the door have forgotten it and even if they do remember it think about the day they were called to come out to some young 25 year old chicks place that has just gotten out of the shower. Heck I bet that they are nearing retirement now.

The only people that remember this are the op and now a bunch of people that heard about this from the op.

What can we do to fix something that no one is dwelling on?
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Old 03-09-2016, 09:14 AM
 
Location: Huntsville, AL
2,852 posts, read 1,604,350 times
Reputation: 5445
Quote:
Originally Posted by HokieFan View Post
It could be that during your anxiety attack, you were making noises that made your neighbors concerned for your well being. That's all that it sounds like to me. Simple.
Or they wanted to see you dripping wet while wearing that robe... it could happen!
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Old 03-09-2016, 10:21 AM
 
Location: Caverns measureless to man...
7,588 posts, read 6,602,681 times
Reputation: 17966
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zelpha View Post
I stopped reading this thread after the last comment I made, but here's a rep comment I received:



Not answering the door is "acting suspiciously?" Are private residents required by law to answer the door every time an unexpected visitor knocks?

What if the police got tired of me not answering the door, then acquired a key from the landlord to let themselves in, or used force to break down the door? Would that have been legal?

Please remember, I was sitting in my apartment quietly doing absolutely nothing that day other than a lot of thinking & hair tweezing.

And what if I hadn't been home at all, and the officers decided to find their way in? Would that have been legal for them to do?
Whoever left that rep comment has no clue what they're talking about. The only times you are required to answer the door for a police officer is 1) if they announce that they have a warrant, 2) if they personally witness or hear something that sounds as though a crime is being committed or someone is in danger, or 3) if there was a 911 call placed from your home that was disconnected. Short of that, you have no obligation even to wave "hello" to them through the window, much less answer the door, and no - they can not get a key from the landlord unless one of those three circumstances have been met. If they do, then your lawyer will include the landlord in your lawsuit, and you'll win damages from them as well as from the police department.

Circumstance #2 is the reason you never, ever even open the door to ask them what they want. Once the door is open, they can basically do whatever they want to do. "Your honor, when the defendant answered the door, I smelled a strong odor that smelled like marijuana," or "When the door was opened, I witnessed what looked like a marijuana pipe on the coffee table," or whatever. They can make up whatever they want, and once they're inside they'll wander around and do whatever they want to do for as long as they want.

In your situation, I agree that they probably were genuinely concerned for your safety for some reason, but for all you know the downstairs neighbors also reported that they thought you sometimes used drugs. If they had, then once you opened the door and let them inside, it's quite possible the police really were just looking for drug paraphernalia.

In your case, you knew that you were in no danger, so there was no benefit whatsoever to letting them in. I'm sure you weren't using drugs, so you had nothing to worry about from letting them wander around inside, but nevertheless it's an invasion of your privacy, and the 4th Amendment of the Constitution protects you from that. You would have been completely within your rights to thank them politely and close the door in their faces, or to simply ignore them altogether - and no, "acting suspiciously" does not constitute probable cause to force entry into your home.
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Old 03-09-2016, 12:45 PM
 
Location: Self explanatory
12,601 posts, read 7,195,974 times
Reputation: 16799
Quote:
Originally Posted by ccc123 View Post
Quit worrying about something that happened 16 years ago!! Doesn't even matter.
Bingo.
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Old 03-09-2016, 03:25 PM
 
16,579 posts, read 20,658,614 times
Reputation: 26860
Quote:
Originally Posted by Albert_The_Crocodile View Post
Just about any attorney worth a damn will tell you the exact same thing. There is absolutely no good reason to let a police officer into your house unless you called them and asked them to come. I don't even open the door or acknowledge their presence. Police at your door are not your friends.
How often are the police stopping by your house? I've had police stop by my house once in 54 years and it was for a legitimate reason.
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Old 03-09-2016, 03:45 PM
 
17,815 posts, read 25,574,545 times
Reputation: 36267
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zelpha View Post
This is something that happened to me in the year 2000. Every once in awhile it echoes in my memory, and I'll never really know what happened or why.

I had my first apartment, fortunate to get a top-floor apt with a great view of open space & the Rocky Mountains in an affluent, crime-free area. I may have looked young to older people but I was about 25, and already completed an honorable Army enlistment.

When I first moved in, I met my downstairs neighbors, a retired couple. They looked at me suspiciously every time we met in passing. But I was a nice responsible girl, had a good solid job, kept to myself, a well-behaved quiet girl. In fact I kept to myself so much that all I ever did was go to work & come home.

One Saturday I was trying to get up the courage to go on a rafting trip with some other young single people from my church. But I kept having anxiety attacks just at the thought of meeting new people in a new situation, I shamefully never got up the courage to leave my apartment that day.

About an hour after my last anxiety attack there was a loud knock on the door. It freaked me out, I wasn't expecting anyone, so I didn't answer. A few minutes later they pounded again, and this time an authoritative male voice called through the door that it was the police(!) Well this additionally freaked me out.

I didn't answer the door. Heart beating wildly, still freaked out, and needing to take a shower to be presentable to anyone that day anyway, I got in the shower.

While I was in the shower, they started banging on the door again. So I got out of the shower, dried off real quick, put on a robe, and answered the damn door.

There were THREE police officers. One did the speaking. Something to the effect of, "Oh sorry Ma'am, didn't realize you were in the shower....Is there any trouble here today?" I assured them all was calm & quiet, no trouble, everything is fine. I asked them what was wrong. They said some noise/trouble was reported coming from my apartment(!?)

He asked if they could have a look around inside the apartment. I said sure go ahead, and let them in. (Older & wiser now I realize they had no legal right to enter & search without probable cause or warrant) but I had nothing to hide, hell I was young and had hardly anything at all but a hand-me-down sofa & an inflatable mattress.

They looked around through every room, saw absolutely nothing, and bid me good day.

And that was that.

Every once in a long while I remember that pathetic & weird day, and all I can figure is that my downstairs neighbors who were trying to enjoy their retirement, resented me because they assumed a young, single girl living alone = trouble. They're free to assume anything they want, but why would they call the police on me on such a quiet day of nothingness?

The only thing I may have ever done wrong as their upstairs neighbor was doing cartwheels & jumping around one day when I was a wee bit energetic, but it wasn't THAT day. And it only happened once, perhaps several weeks before that police thing happened.

It's all speculation anyway, I have no indication who sent the police that day, or why.

It would've made a good episode of the Twilight Zone, as if my inner demons (social anxiety) came to a head with the cops beating on my door. Maybe my anxiety attacks were so severe that they caused a metaphysical rumbling in my apartment. Maybe the police were sent to pull me out of my social anxiety shell! Haha

You're wondering about something that happened 16 years ago in a state you no longer even live in?

You probably got bat s**t crazy in your apartment over the anxiety you were having and CONCERNED neighbors were wondering what the hell is going on with that girl in apt #______.

As the British say "press on".
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