No no no, nowhere does it say the FRONT DOOR was open. If the garage door was open, the police aren't going to give a shiat if the front door is open. For those of you who haven't lived in a surbuban home, yet made fun of us rich, white upper class Republicans for just doing our thing, you leave the front door locked and the mud room door unlocked and the garage door closed. Obviously, they accidently left the garage door unclosed, with the keys in the ignition of the SUV or whatever high-end car they owned (not uncommon), left the mud-room door unlocked (non uncommon) and the TV in the living room on (non uncommon).

DreadnaughtZeta: The most reliable witnesses we have are the police officers.

Why are there stories more reliable that the homeowner?

DreadnaughtZeta: There is absolutely nothing in the article to indicate that they are lying.

Is there any info given in TFA to indicate that the homeowner is lying? And yet, there stories differ.

Snowflake Tubbybottom: They were damned lucky they weren't shot as burglars.

I was gonna say the same

Pr1nc3ss
The whole "reasonable suspicion" shpeel is typical police bullsh*t that they say every time they screw up.

You'd never win a suit against the police department, and they didn't screw up. The dude left his front door open and didn't answer when the police checked to see if something was wrong.

Now, I'd wager that given those circumstances, statistics would say there's a very high likelihood of a crime having occurred, as people don't leave their front doors open in the middle of the night. And it's an area where there have been a lot of nighttime burglaries. Their suspicion was very much reasonable, as there was a high probability when looking at the scene that a crime was either in commission or had just occurred.

This is just another issue of Americans with a bolstered sense of their own self-worth and self-importance that it has developed into a well geared case of paranoia against the government.


Oh noes they're out to get me!!


The police officers made sure everyone was alright and then left. They didn't arrest anyone, they didn't come in guns drawn and blazing, they didn't taze anyone, they didn't physically touch anyone, they didn't charge him with a crime, or take something from his house for later evidence. They made sure everyone was safe and left.


If you are someone who is so worried about someone entering your 'property' maybe you should take the time to shut and lock your doors. Cause I don't know about everyone else, but leaving doors wide open in the middle of suburbia is not what I call a proper sense of paranoia about your rights. Shouldn't you be locked down in the basement oiling your guns for when the army comes for you?

King Something: Before anyone says "ZOMG POLICE STATE!!!1!" please allow me to point out that what zz9 just described is called "Reasonable Suspicion," and is a completely different animal than a SWAT team breaking down a door and charging in guns blazing on a no-knock warrant because somebody who lives there had a fraction of a gram of marijuana in their trash can.

Can't come in on a reasonable suspicion. If they DID find anything illegal, it'd probably be tossed out, then again if it was in plain view... maybe not. Depends on the jurisdiction I suppose.

YoungSwedishBlonde:If I had a nickel for everytime I left my parents garage door open after I came home from a friend's house, I'd have a dollar or so saved up.

I gotta hand it to you... your troll-fu was pretty strong up to this point. But then you just had to out yourself as a non-homeowner who doesn't give a shiat about other people's property, even those whose protection you live under.

/'twas entertaining while it lasted, though
//cops were righteous in this case

The sad part of all of this is that since this is being made into such a big deal, cops are going to start ignoring things like this for fear that they're going to be accused of wrongdoing.

YoungSwedishBlonde: Jesus Christ, you people are retarded.

well, YoungSwedishBlonde, i guess you've taught me one thing. i should never intervene (when something seems wrong) and ask people if they are "okay" so as not to infringe on their constitutional rights. thank you for educating the world about this, one retard at a time...

PScooter63:
I gotta hand it to you... your troll-fu was pretty strong up to this point. But then you just had to out yourself as a non-homeowner who doesn't give a shiat about other people's property, even those whose protection you live under.

/'twas entertaining while it lasted, though
//cops were righteous in this case

OMG, I lived in a Cul-De-Sac! SOMEBODY CALL DA POLICE!

More_Like_A_Stain: DreadnaughtZeta: The most reliable witnesses we have are the police officers.

Why are there stories more reliable that the homeowner?

DreadnaughtZeta: There is absolutely nothing in the article to indicate that they are lying.

Is there any info given in TFA to indicate that the homeowner is lying? And yet, there stories differ.

The fact that they were specifically checking the house to see if it was secure makes them more reliable than a homeowner who could easily have forgotten to close his door and mistakenly remembered having closed it.

I'm also not saying that the homeowner was lying. But I know that I, for one, have sometimes thought that I did something like lock my car door or home door and later realized that I actually hadn't.

lauraleelewis: well, YoungSwedishBlonde, i guess you've taught me one thing. i should never intervene (when something seems wrong) and ask people if they are "okay" so as not to infringe on their constitutional rights. thank you for educating the world about this, one retard at a time...

Obviously, you never lived with someone who just happened to leave their freaking garage door open.

WOW! STOP THE FREAKING PRESSES. My neighbors would do it all the f*cking time.

A garage door being open is a completely ridiculous reason for a cop to enter a house. What if the guy had a carport? Carports are very common in warm climates. Would the cops be able to break into his house then? People have the right to be stupid. Most people also learn when their mistakes have consequences. They'll get robbed once and after that they'll remember to double-check all their doors every night. The cops don't have the right to enter their house until they wake up and call the cops.

Snowflake Tubbybottom: A simple ring of the doorbell would have yielded a far better result.
janks369: they knocked and got no answer. RTFA

So knocking and getting no answer is reasonable suspicion?
Good thing I don't do anything questionable in my home! That means I have nothing to fear, right?

Seriously, this sets a dangerous precedent. If they wanted to do something useful, the police could have shut the open doors and left a note.
But instead they wandered into his home, scared the kids, and banged on the bedroom door. If someone was banging on my bedroom door at 3am, I'd probably assume that it was MrsBFD's drunk, dumbass, [and somewhat violent] ex-boyfriend and be answering the door armed.

So let's run that scenario to the end:
1-Answer my own bedroom door armed and suspecting an intruder in a house full of kids [gotta protect the kids, right?]
2-Police see big man with gun and draw their weapons on reflex.
3a-Occupant [me] shoots the armed men invading my home and posing a danger to the kids.
OR
3b-Police shoot the big scary naked man [me] with a gun.

Harry Dangler: The door was ajar. That means it could have been shut, and when pressure was applied, it opened.

When did "ajar" start meaning "closed but openable with slight pressure?" You may want to consult a dictionary for clarification.

lauraleelewis: YoungSwedishBlonde: Jesus Christ, you people are retarded.

well, YoungSwedishBlonde, i guess you've taught me one thing. i should never intervene (when something seems wrong) and ask people if they are "okay" so as not to infringe on their constitutional rights. thank you for educating the world about this, one retard at a time...


Yep. People were all upset about that video of a man getting hit by a car and everyone just ignoring him, but that was just the continuation of the current theme people in this country are trying to take. An extreme case, but it's still there. With so many people screaming about their rights being broken and backing those screams with lawsuits at anyone and everyone not moving fast enough, why risk it by helping someone.



"Omg that man has been shot, shouldn't we go help him?"

"Weeeelll I would, but only if he says I can or if he drags himself over here to the street. I would hate to violate his rights by trespassing on his property."

Wow, this whole thread makes me wanna streak the parking lot...

/knurd
//any joiners?

Alternate Reality: A garage door being open is a completely ridiculous reason for a cop to enter a house. What if the guy had a carport? Carports are very common in warm climates. Would the cops be able to break into his house then? People have the right to be stupid. Most people also learn when their mistakes have consequences. They'll get robbed once and after that they'll remember to double-check all their doors every night. The cops don't have the right to enter their house until they wake up and call the cops.

As I've tried to point out to you people several times already, the garage door being open was NOT the reason they entered the house. The reason was that the door to the house itself was open, which is definitely something that could indicate trouble. They were simply checking to make sure that the resident was alright, and did nothing more than that.

TFA:
The officers told Molde his garage door was open, the TV was on, keys to his truck were left in the ignition and the door to his house was ajar.

Snowflake Tubbybottom: King Something: Before anyone says "ZOMG POLICE STATE!!!1!" please allow me to point out that what zz9 just described is called "Reasonable Suspicion,"

No, its not even close. The vehicle is there with the keys in it, so you can rule out any grand theft, nothing appears to be disturbed in the wide open garage, and no one visibly bludgened in front of the still turned on TV. So where exactly do you believe there was anything reasonable to believe some nefarious act had or was taking place? They were not called to be there, they had no reason to enter, and they sure as hell were morons for actually waking the guy up instead of turning around and leaving once they determined no crime had taken place. They were damned lucky they weren't shot as burglars.

A simple ring of the doorbell would have yielded a far better result.

while i can agree with you on the lack of evidence for theft, there are people who do things called assassinations. and while i have never witnessed one, or what one does, i tend not to think of them as thieves...
the police saw the door opened, and the car with the key still in it, and thought the worse (they are trained to do so i believe). Therefore they went inside to ensure that no one was hurt. and as unlikely that an assassination had occurred, something like that, i personally think, is still probable cause.

Shouldn't the eight or nine dogs on the guy's front porch barked or something to wake him up?

bunnyhat

Yup because that situation totally has to do with a suburban family leaving their mud room door unlocked after forgetting to close their garage door.

How many f*cking retards want to challenge me? Seriously. If you do not understand how we live in Minnesota, just don't even respond, you f*cking morons.

...People really still leave their keys in the ignition? Are they that lazy, or living in 1930s?

YoungSwedishBlonde
WOW! STOP THE FREAKING PRESSES. My neighbors would do it all the f*cking time.

They won't be doing it anymore. Theft from open cars and garages are extremely, extremely common in that area. My parents are in Savage just at the Burnsville border, just a few miles west of Lakeville, and the cars in the drive (there are too many to all fit in the garage when my brother comes over) have been broken into at least five times in the past two years. Several times people tried to break into the garage too -- the doorknob itself doesn't lock, and you can push the door in for a centimeter or two before the bolt hits with a loud booming sound; they've awakened from that before on several occasions.

Not any since they put motion activated floodlights on the top of the garage, but those lights do go off quite a lot at night.

If you leave your garage door open nowadays in those areas, it's a mistake you'll only make once as you'll have nothing left in that garage when you get up the next day.

MIguy: Nobody knows if the door was open or closed...etc

The police officers in question do know. They said that it was open. There is no justifiable reason to believe that their testimony is inaccurate.

MIguy

For that matter, nobody knows if the cops even entered the house at all, because unless you saw it, you're just taking the news reporter's word for it. Therefore you might as well assume the entire incident never happened.

Sum Dum Gai: They won't be doing it anymore. Theft from open cars and garages are extremely, extremely common in that area. My parents are in Savage just at the Burnsville border, just a few miles west of Lakeville, and the cars in the drive (there are too many to all fit in the garage when my brother comes over) have been broken into at least five times in the past two years. Several times people tried to break into the garage too -- the doorknob itself doesn't lock, and you can push the door in for a centimeter or two before the bolt hits with a loud booming sound; they've awakened from that before on several occasions.

Not any since they put motion activated floodlights on the top of the garage, but those lights do go off quite a lot at night.

If you leave your garage door open nowadays in those areas, it's a mistake you'll only make once as you'll have nothing left in that garage when you get up the next day.


Yes because crime is such a problem in the South Metro now...

/beyond Eagan...
//sighhhhhhh try again

Sum Dum Gai: MIguy

For that matter, nobody knows if the cops even entered the house at all, because unless you saw it, you're just taking the news reporter's word for it. Therefore you might as well assume the entire incident never happened.

Um no. All persons involved have said that the cops entered the house and went to the bedroom. Seriously, pay attention.

YoungSwedishBlonde
How many f*cking retards want to challenge me? Seriously. If you do not understand how we live in Minnesota, just don't even respond, you f*cking morons.

I'm Minnesotan. I was born in St. Louis Park and lived in Savage more than half my life.

If you're leaving the garage doors open, you're a moron, and you're gonna be robbed very quickly. Especially the past 5 years or so, robberies have gone way up.

wxboy: Because crime never happens in the suburbs, especially in Minnesota?

Lakeville? Yea sure, you want some high teenagers wanting to throw rocks at cars...sure, I've been there.

The cops are lucky the guy didn't have a gun under his pillow and opened fired. Besides that why didn't the cops wait outside and try to call the home owner on the phone? and don't give me the ZOMG he could have been in danger. The cops could have been in danger entering a house without exhausting all options to contact the home owner. And what legal authority do kids have to consent to allow officers into the home? If the kids were under duress then I would understand but if the kids seemed normal and calm with police at the door the police could have at least asked the kids to go and get the adult owner of the house. There was no need whatsoever to enter the house. Especially since this was a routine door to door reminder about keeping your house safe and NOT a call for help. (AKA 911 call)

Whats in the basket lady?

Also, are we talking about a screen door and door or just a door? What if the screen door was closed and the door was open? Ultimately my opinion is no harm, no foul.

DreadnaughtZeta: The fact that they were specifically checking the house to see if it was secure makes them more reliable than a homeowner who could easily have forgotten to close his door and mistakenly remembered having closed it.

I'm also not saying that the homeowner was lying. But I know that I, for one, have sometimes thought that I did something like lock my car door or home door and later realized that I actually hadn't.

So you are basing your interpretation solely on the word of the officers? Even though the homeowner says that he remembers closing the door, he MUST be wrong because the officers said the door was ajar? There's no possibility that they could have filled in a gap in their recollection, with info that fit their needs? Aren't eyewitnesses notoriously unreliable, even when they have the best of intentions, for exactly this reason?

DreadnaughtZeta: MIguy: Nobody knows if the door was open or closed...etc

The police officers in question do know. They said that it was open. There is no justifiable reason to believe that their testimony is inaccurate.

ur a dick

YoungSwedishBlonde:
OMG, I lived in a Cul-De-Sac! SOMEBODY CALL DA POLICE!

Obviously, you never lived with someone who just happened to leave their freaking garage door open.

WOW! STOP THE FREAKING PRESSES. My neighbors would do it all the f*cking time.

look, I get it, okay? you hate cops. you're a rebel, a loose cannon. and I imagine your parents have to yell at you over the sounds of "Fark The Police" by N.W.A. every time you leave the garage door open.

/loves that song
//self proclaimed cop-killah
///not really

Sum Dum Gai:
If you're leaving the garage doors open, you're a moron, and you're gonna be robbed very quickly. Especially the past 5 years or so, robberies have gone way up.

Oh bull farkin shiat. I was born in Methodist Hospital in Saint Louis Park as well...Crime in Minnesota is nothing compared to anywhere else and I've got all my friends living in high crime areas in Minneapolis. Leaving a garage door open in Lakeville is not worthy of a cops time.

Christ on a Cross.

He had a slumber party! Any of you that have kids, their friends, pancakes, TV, DVDs, and bedtime know what he was going through.

"Thank the Maker they are asleep and quiet! Now I can get some sleep and get them all home tomorrow".

/Oh shiat, cops!!!!!!

If that happened to me, I'd send the cops a farking thank you card and apologize for being a dipshiat. I left my garage door up one night and ended up with a pretty big insurance claim. Bastards stole my bike.

nebjammer: If police are the law do they get to break the law , for example, tresspassng?

Sorry Neb, you're late. We already have 7 or 8 trolls in this thread.

ManatOrr: DreadnaughtZeta: MIguy: Nobody knows if the door was open or closed...etc

The police officers in question do know. They said that it was open. There is no justifiable reason to believe that their testimony is inaccurate.

ur a dick

Thank you for the mature and insightful rebuttal of my point. It makes me so glad to see that we have such intelligent people around here conversing so politely and respectfully about such a controversial topic.

lauraleelewis: look, I get it, okay? you hate cops. you're a rebel, a loose cannon. and I imagine your parents have to yell at you over the sounds of "Fark The Police" by N.W.A. every time you leave the garage door open.

/loves that song
//self proclaimed cop-killah
///not really

Oh yes, especially since I'm usually the first one to defend the cops. But oh god, I happen to disagree with the cops busting in on a helpless family that happened to leave their garage door open. FARK THAT. Any Minnesotan family knows thats a honest mistake.

YoungSwedishBlonde: lauraleelewis: look, I get it, okay? you hate cops. you're a rebel, a loose cannon. and I imagine your parents have to yell at you over the sounds of "Fark The Police" by N.W.A. every time you leave the garage door open.

/loves that song
//self proclaimed cop-killah
///not really

Oh yes, especially since I'm usually the first one to defend the cops. But oh god, I happen to disagree with the cops busting in on a helpless family that happened to leave their garage door open. FARK THAT. Any Minnesotan family knows thats a honest mistake.

For the last damn time, it was not just the garage door being open. What exactly is so difficult to understand about such a simple concept?

wxboy: some crime stats

Oooo, yea, that justifies the Lakeville police busting in on our home. Do you know how many people live in Lakeville?

DreadnaughtZeta: ManatOrr: DreadnaughtZeta: MIguy: Nobody knows if the door was open or closed...etc

The police officers in question do know. They said that it was open. There is no justifiable reason to believe that their testimony is inaccurate.

ur a dick

Thank you for the mature and insightful rebuttal of my point. It makes me so glad to see that we have such intelligent people around here conversing so politely and respectfully about such a controversial topic.

*shrug*

Your post appeared to disregard all other posts on this specific topic of dispute that were previously made; therefore, I decided to "go with my gut" on my rebuttal and respond with an approximation of the same amount of thoughtfulness and respect that you had.

I was just a little more blunt, is all. Sorry if I offended you.

Carry on with your own flavor of inconsiderate jackassery, by all means.

DreadnaughtZeta: MIguy: Nobody knows if the door was open or closed...etc

The police officers in question do know. They said that it was open. There is no justifiable reason to believe that their testimony is inaccurate.

Except that the homeowner disagrees with that statement. That, in itself, is justification to question it.