Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Now I understand police knocking and telling you uour Garage door is open

Um Issac - usually I am on your side but according to what's presented - no one answered a knock at the door at 3am. Hardly suspicious.

As to the door being open and keys in the truck - again, don't buy it as suspicious. If his neighbors didn't find it weird enough to call the cops then why is it so unfathomable that someone would leave the door open or the keys in the truck as normal- it's Minnesota not Compton.

I wonder if the kids didn't open the door and let the officer in. Remember they didn't want to wake up dad. I would make sure my kids knew better than to open a door to anyone at night. To me that is a scarier thought than the officer actually coming in because he wasn't heard at the door.

The police came to Les's while we were visiting and knocked and told him his garage door was open and that there had been a break-in a couple of streets over. Sounded like a good cop to me.

Joe:

If the officers had minded their own business, went away and the next day found out there had been a couple of murdered people inside, there would have been hell to pay.

Been a few folks around here who've been murdered by someone who entered the house early in the evening through an unlocked door.

Now, as to a man's constitutional right to go to bed after leaving his front door ajar and his garage door wide open, I'll concede the point.

On the other hand, he had four children sleeping in that wide open house at 3:00 am. That kind of creeps me out.

- Tom

Maybe it's a reginal thing. Around here, if lights are on, TV on, garage and house door open and noone answers a knock, it's more than suspicious.

wow I guess it's just the difference in how/where you are raised.


raised on a farm, dogs would always let you know if someone was coming.


funny how even though I'm a "suburbanite" now (yechhh) I've still got a long driveway, well 1/10 of a mile, leave my house unlocked most of the time and sometimes leave the garage door open (though not often in winter, grin)

course 3 dogs make it all a moot point, but I don't like surprises, wouldn't appreciate anyone just entering my house uninvited.

So the cops go on and there are dead bodies laying all over the floor. What exactly could the cops do for someone already dead?

I've never had anybody fail to respond to me "knocking" regardless of the time (and I work mostly mids). Most LEOs that I know "knock" with the butt end of a maglight. As someone here once said "it never don't not work".

George

Think in terms of them not being dead or harmed but in 10 minutes that would all be changed.

Investigate it. The fear is that if they just drove by and it was later found out that they were driving by when the act was occurring, there's going to be a lawsuit.

George

I find it difficult to believe Teal was being serious.

Could be wrong, though.

- Tom

Yeah, I should have thrown a after the investigate it sentence. Dry humor doesn't translate well via the typed word.

George

I was about the fact people were concerned there might be dead people there. Unless you can raise the dead - they aren't missing much.

I didn't see anything to make me believe something was going on right that second though... 3am is usually pretty quiet and I would think an officer could hear something if there was cause for alarm.

Whatever.

Just know that if we keep loosening our definition of "suspicious" to allowing people to enter your home (think of the children! Oh wont someone think of the children!) then why bother to have the 4th amendment at all.

This isn't a probable cause to search issue, Teal.

It's a cop(s) making sure a family is OK. A safety issue. Now, if the cops uncovered a room full of cocaine and made an arrest, I'd have no trouble with filing a suppression motion.

Let's just instill a F 'em" attitude into the cops mind-set so they don't go through the trouble.

Poor guys. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.

And cops drive by crimes all the time. Really think that no crime has been committed with a cop driving by?

Think of the people who are over the legal limit for DUI and pass a cop sitting on the side of the road. Crime committed and officer present, maybe later something happens - no one sued the cop for watching the car drive by.

How much you want to bet if there was say an "unlicensed" gun on the nightstand when they checked his bedroom there wouldn't have been a citation?

I am not going to get into this - I am just saying that if an officer went into my house based on the keys being in the ignition of my truck and the door open - it would bother me and I would talk to someone about it for sure. Sue? Nope but it would bother me. My opinion - didn't say anyone else had to have it.

And if the cops drove by the open garage door/house without stopping I would agree with you. Once they checked the house and found it open, different story. In your example above, if the cop stopped the car for a violation, made note of the intoxication, and then left there would be issues if an accident occurred after the fact.

George

You can't be serious. Comparing dead bodies to speeders is "out there".

Because some may have missed it.

I am not going to get into this - I am just saying that if an officer went into my house based on the keys being in the ignition of my truck and the door open - it would bother me and I would talk to someone about it for sure. Sue? Nope but it would bother me. My opinion - didn't say anyone else had to have it.

I agree with you.

The deciding factor here is that they didn't point their guns at him and arrest him...although one speculates that they probably would have--and perhaps more--if he'd heard the commotion downstairs, armed himself, and ambushed them.

What they did was stupid and likely to get their heads blown off if they keep doing it; but I don't think it was criminal, unless he wants to try charging them with trespassing. Given that they were just trying to make sure everything was okay, though, I doubt he'd be able to make a trespassing charge stick.

Me too. But if you find a car with the keys in it in the city I work in, it's because whowever STOLE it didn'd take them when they bailed. If a door is open at night, it is whore house or has been burglarized.