Police respond to home intruder call that turned out to be a robot vacuum

[MissMillie]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/police-respond-to-home-intruder-call-that-turned-out-to-be-a-robot-vacuum/ar-BBYnpph?ocid=spartanntp

(snip)

Upon entering the home, deputies couldn’t find a human suspect. Instead, they found the couple’s robot vacuum wedged up against a wall, banging back and forth in an attempt to free itself. The vacuum, which had been purchased just days earlier, had woken itself up in the middle of the night and decided to do some cleaning. Unfortunately, it found itself stuck, and while doing its best to escape, it woke up its confused owners.




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[Beringia]

1. That's funny

I have my own story to add.

I grew up in a big house with lots of siblings. We had to take turns doing the dishes. My younger brother, about age 13 was doing them. He didn't want to do the dishes and so started saying aloud, "somebody please help me, somebody please help me, I can't do the dishes" over and over. Then the police arrived, a few of them and searched the house. Some neighbor must have called it in and the police were looking for a person who had been kidnapped or something.

I don't think anyone told the police what had happened, I don't remember.

[MissMillie]

7. Something similar happened to a friend of mine.

He didn't realize that cats don't need baths. He tried to give his cat a shower and a neighbor called the police because they thought someone was beating his kid.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. So funny. I just sent that to my daughter and granddaughter.

[5X]

3. How many times did they shoot it?

[maxsolomon]

19. My 1st question as well.

The homeowners should be mortified with embarrassment.

[Aristus]

4. Police shot the Roomba fifty-seven times after demanding just once

that the robot raise its hands.

The Roomba has no hands.

The police officers involved shouted "Stop resisting!' repeatedly until firing the last shot.

[burrowowl]

11. Too true!

[packman]

14. Was the Roomba black - should have bought the white one

[burrowowl]

20. Hmm!

[PatSeg]

16. "Stop resisting"

[samnsara]

5. i bought myself 2 of these and they do make a racket when they get stuck on something..

...this reminds me of the yuppie cpl living next to the Griswolds in National Lampoon Christmas!

[marble falls]

6. I guess they didn't know how to Roomba. "Dust 'em, Dano!"

[NewJeffCT]

8. sure it seemed like the robot vacuum

it was really Skynet starting to flex its muscles

[Midnight Writer]

12. My Roomba became self aware, so I released it.

Will not buy again.

[Politicub]

9. We live in the damn future.

Gay marriage and robot vacuum cleans - life is grand! Awesome.

[Liberty Belle]

10. My Roomba sucked up a pencil once and made a horrible noise.

After that I disabled the auto feature and only run it when I'm home. That said It's one of my favorite items ever -- I have a very large living room and my back is bad, so the robot vac actually does a pretty good job getting most of the dust and dog fur picked up.

[Fritz Walter]

13. My Roomba gets stuck ALL THE TIME!

Sometimes I’m home when she* can’t find the way out of a corner, and is easy to find and rescue.

Other times —usually when I step out for a few minutes — she finds the exact midpoint under my king-size bed to get stuck. I have to use a broom to push her to a more accessible spot.

But she wipes out dust bunnies much better than my old Kenmore upright, so she’s a keeper.
__
* For the record, I wasn’t the one who assigned the gender: when she gets stuck, she calls out in a voice that’s unmistakably feminine.

[40RatRod]

15. Mine came with flexible magnetic strips that

prevent it from going under chairs, etc and getting stuck.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

17. This event really is not funny because......

false alarms like this tie up emergency resources that may be needed elsewhere. This was a problem when I was a volunteer firefighter where false alarms can tie up an entire department for a time, until the true nature of the alarm is determined and the run is cleared.

I believe this will be a worsening problem as more people install so-called "smart home" automated devices.

Cute story but that cop could have been needed at another location for the real thing.

KY......

[Buns_of_Fire]

18. Mine developed an unhealthy romance with the floor lamp base.

I finally had to separate them and put a box around the base. She doesn't seem to hold against me -- but I don't let her wake up by herself, just in case.