Trespassing apparently is a new "public service" in one Minnesota town.
LAKEVILLE, Minnesota (AP) -- A Lakeville man says he feels violated after two police officers woke him up at 3 a.m. to tell him his door was unlocked.
Their surprise visit was part of a public service campaign to remind residents to secure their homes to prevent thefts. Usually, officers just leave notices on doors.
Here's the best part:
A police spokesman says the intrusion was justified because the officers' initial door knocks went unanswered, and they wanted to make sure nothing was wrong.
Good to know the next time you're on vacation and aren't available to answer your door, the police will break into your home and housesit. You know, in the name of safety.
Those police officers are lucky they weren't shot in the confusion I'm sure that man experienced at 3am as strangers were waking him. And if they had been, I'm sure it would have been the homeowner's fault.
Posted by: Wolf | June 23, 2008 at 10:08 AM
I can imagine a family dog trying to protect the family…. Then, the cops justifying the shooting of the family dog, because they felt threatened when the dog barked at them
Its only a matter of time.
Posted by: Dano | June 23, 2008 at 11:02 AM
They always shoot the dog. Put that sentence in a google search followed by the words 'Radley Balko' and see what pops up.
Posted by: trevor | June 23, 2008 at 12:13 PM
You know... to take this a step further, can the police now assume that an unlocked door implies approval for a search by the homeowner? What if they had found the homeowner involved in "illegal" activity, say, a high stakes poker game in his basement. Is just walking into someone's house uninvited and "stumbling into" something like that now legal? Are we no longer required to have a warrant or probable cause? Or is an unlocked door now in-and-of-itself probable cause?
Too many liberties are being taken, and people are just standing by and allowing it.
Posted by: Wolf | June 23, 2008 at 01:48 PM
There is already established precedent allowing the seizure of property deemed 'illegal' (burned dvd copies of movies come to mind) and subsequent arrest if the police happen to spot something even if they're in someone's home executing a warrant for something else entirely.
Posted by: trevor | June 23, 2008 at 03:37 PM
It wasn't the door that was unlocked. The person's garage door was open. The door into the house from the garage was unlocked. There's nothing wrong with them checking to see that it isn't a case of a burglary in progress. It's not normal to have the garage door wide open at early in the morning. Furthermore, the man who is complaining about the incident has some personal reasons to raise a stink with the city.
We should be concerned about what the police do when they enter a premise. For example, the buffoonery all to often displayed when carrying out search warrants for so-called drug dealers. But this isn't one of those cases.
Posted by: Allen | June 29, 2008 at 03:54 PM