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Ally and I were woken by our daughter saying that the police were knocking at our door. We got out of bed and I was first down the hall worried that something had happened to Man-Cub forgetting that he had come home just before I went to sleep.
I made it down the hall way to the dining/kitchen area where there were three cops inside the doorway from the front room to the kitchen. One cop had a huge German Shepard, another had her weapon drawn, but held muzzle down to her side, the one farthest in the kitchen had an AR-15 leveled at me. The first thing out of my mouth was "Stop pointing that fucking gun at us". I don't think they liked that statement. I was awake by then, and answering questions like how many persons were in the house. My wife and I said 3, assuming that Man-Cub was spending the night at a buddies. They asked if any of us were outside recently. I asked that what were they doing here and they said they were looking for a prowler, and that our door was open/unlocked, as if that was the reason they were in our house.
Then they asked if anyone was in our backyard, sleeping or camping (???). Again we said no, and the guy with the assault rife (barrel now lowered) repeated that they would not find anyone in the backyard and again we said no. They then said that they were going to look back there, and to lock our doors.
My bed room in at the back of the house and as we went back to bed we could see flashlights all through our backyard. About ten minutes later we heard pounding (about 3) sounds and Alley and I got back up and went to our front porch. There were emergency lights at one end of our block. I told my wife that I was going back to bed. She said that she was going to walk down there and check things out.
When she got to bed she said the police were in our next door neighbors back yard with flashlights..
It took some time for us to go back to sleep.
This morning we all talked about what had happened, comparing stories and my daughter said that she heard our door bell, and loud knocking in her sleep and when she woke up she heard talking in the front room. The kids bedrooms are both in the front of the house separated from the entrance to the front room and dining room area by a short hallway. When she walked in to the front room all three cops had guns leveled at her but lowered them when they realized then had the drop on a 14y.o girl in her pj's. Man-Cub said that he did not wake up until we were talking to the cops, and stayed in bed not wanting anything to do with the mini-circus in our kitchen.
We were so sleepy we really did not react like we would have normally. My wife is Federal Officer with 20 years in service, I normally would have be screaming at a cop that I thought stepped over the line, but neither of us were fully awake during this little visit. What the hell happed to probable cause to enter a house? What would have happened if our (very chicken-hearted) daughter had screamed and made a quick movement?
I am thinking of filing a complaint asking what justification did the police have entering our home. We live in one of the safest neighborhoods in the Los Angeles area, and haven't locked our doors in years. We will now, not because of criminals, which would get in anyway, but to keep our local P.D. from waltzing when ever they feel like it.
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