…saying they got a call that someone smelled ether coming from my apartment.
I was sitting on the couch watching CSI on Spike when they knocked. They were nice, but I found out that ether can be used for meth - so I let them search because I definitely do not have or make meth. I’ve never even seen meth. I’ve only heard of ether from reading The Cider House Rules. I don’t know what it smells like. I don’t even know any of my neighbors yet, just that they don’t seem to have jobs because their cars hardly move. Hopefully no one in here in making meth because I don’t want my apartment to blow up. They got out their flashlights, looked around for a minute, asked me if I had done any cleaning today (I only washed dishes and used Joy, they were wondering about stuff like PineSol) and that was about it.
But now I am really weirded out. I know I don’t live in the greatest neighborhood, but drive 2 minutes away and you’re in half-million dollar plus neighborhoods (and this isn’t California - house prices arent that high). I had cops knock on my door once before because someone that used to live here and never changed their address committed a hit and run. I wish my roommate and I would have just moved into one of the shitty filled with college kids craphole apartment complexes and paid a bit more. Then we’d probably only see cops busting underage drinking or noise complaints - not hit and runs and possible drug production.
And my roommate hasn’t been here for either of these episodes. Hopefully these cops will figure out which of my deadbeat loser neighbors (includes the weirdos the next building over with the collection of broken cars) is responsible for all this, if it turns out to be anything. I wouldn’t of moved here if I though I would be unsafe - I had friends that lived over here last year and they never had problems.
I was freaked out and they just looked around at stuff in plain sight. They asked and I offered because I wanted them out asap. I didn’t have anything to hide and I am not experienced in dealing with cops. I know I didn’t have ether or meth or pot or guns or kiddie porn or an illegal immigrant in the closet or anything. I’ve never even been pulled over. I think they were looking for obvious evidence of meth-making stuff lying about, none of which I have. I even quit buying Sudafed when I’m sick because it’s a hassle.
Many moons ago, when I was living in my first apartment, the cops came knocking on my door at 2am once. They’d been told that a drug dealer lived in my apartment, and I let them look around when they asked. No biggie. I certainly know the feeling of “hmm, maybe this neighborhood is a little worse than I thought.”
The thing with letting them into your apartment, IMO, is that if they’re assholes they could make something up. I’m not saying that’s the case with these cops, or even most cops - but here in Carson the police have been creamed for planting evidence when they decided they didn’t like the look of someone. You could be the most innocent person on the planet, but that doesn’t mean much if you’re behind bars. Who are they going to believe?
Like I said - that doesn’t ALWAYS happen, it doesn’t even happen OFTEN. I’m mostly paranoid about this kind of thing, because it DOES happen, and I’d hate to see someone who really is innocent get screwed over by a crooked cop.
Get a phone, step out in the hall, close and lock the door and advise the PD on-site you wish to call and verify the “complaint”. If there was in fact a complaint fingering you, and you have nothing to hide, let them search at your own risk. You may want to ask one of the police if THEY smell ether while you are on the phone with 911 - the call is recorded.
Last year I was walking to work at about 4:45 AM when a cop pulled up behind me. He got out of his car and asked me to take my hands out of my coat pockets. He claimed that he had heard gunshots in the vicinity, and patted down the front of my coat where the pockets were (actually one big pocket on the lower front of the coat, with hand holes on each end). I wondered if that was legal. He didn’t attempt any other search, such as reaching into the pocket or patting me down anywhere else, or checking my backpack.
However, I had to raise an eyebrow at his “hearing shots” explanation. He stopped me less than a block from my house. I had been awake since 4:00 and hadn’t heard any shots. It’s pretty quiet that time of morning, and gunshots tend to be pretty obvious.
If I had been the cops, I would have looked for the person calling in the ether smell. What does ether smell like? Whose nose is so attuned to it they can smell it through a door? Sounds a little shady to me.
My girlfriend got a knock from the cops not too long ago as well. Apparently somebody had come up with a moving truck and proceded to rob the apartment below her of all their furniture. Personally, I think the repo guys came, and the one person was hiding it from the other. That would take some serious balls to pull up a moving truck in the middle of the day, go into an apartment, and then take the time to move all their furniture down two flights of stairs.
I had two cops show up in two different cars (one was a drug enforcement SUV with a dog in it) at my house claiming to be looking for a bail jumper from a town over a 100 miles away.
They claimed that the bail jumper used my address as a reference. Never heard of the person. They said it might be an alias (WTF) And the likelyhood of anyone using our address, or even knowing it is pretty small. I mean we are RURAL. I just got my first neighbor in the 15 years I’ve lived here.
Looking back at the incident, I think that the cops thought I was growing pot. I have the perfect house for it. Passive solar. I was sure when they showed up that something must have happened to my Wife. I mean really, what would you think if two cop cars pulled up into your driveway and your Wife is a little overdue.
Happened in my town where I grew up in the 70s. One December a band of robbers knocked off 5 houses in a day. The just backed up like they were movers and emptied the houses of most of their belongings and all the Xmas stuff.
I vaguely remember a local headline of “Gang of Grinches strike 5”.
I think they were caught returning some of the stolen presents in January. This is all hazy, I was about 10 or 11 when this happened.
One other reason to think hard before inviting the cops to search your home (or person or car), is they might find stuff you are not aware of. Maybe a prior tenant or a passenger in your car left some contraband. (Or you are wearing Simon’s leather jacket and when you get extradited to Pahrumpf Nevada a half-smoked joint is found in the pocket.) Or, you may not realize that some things you have or are doing are illegal.
I would be polite, but decline. Maybe let them take a good whiff before I stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind me.
I’m just surprised by the number of people who immediately expressed shock that myskepticsight let the cops in. I wouldn’t have thought twice. I admit, I’m kind of a weenie and tend to have a little too much blind respect for authority knocking at my door, but now I’ll at least think twice. Yeesh!
An old friend of mine who lived on the same street as me last year IMed me and we talked about last night - she said it’s gotta be coming from the little house next door. Her friend lived on the other side of the little house for 3 years and she’s noticed weird activity. There also is this strung-out lady who lives down the street and you see her walking down and going to the little house every day.
So I called the police department and let them know. If those hoosiers (bunch of rusted up cars in the driveway kind of people) are making or selling meth, I want them gone. I think the lady in the apartment next door probably called it in, and the little house is on the other side of her, so it seems to make sense.
I’ve told this before, but I guess it’s worth repeating. This happened about 10 years back, I was newly married (big mistake that ended in '99) and my wife had this old car. I had suggested she give it to charity, since I had already bought her a newer minivan. She decided she wanted to give it to a girlfriend who was, supposedly, recovering from drug addiction. It was her car to do with as she wanted, I just cautioned that she report the tranfer to the DMV, which of course she didn’t do. (one of many irresponsible acts during our marriage). A couple of months later, two cops show up at my door, wanting to know if my wife owned this car. Now it happens that she and I had been sick for a day or two, flu, bad colds, I’m not sure, but I had been resting on the sofa and she was asleep in bed. I had also just made a fresh pot of coffee. So I invite the cops in and offer them coffee, which they decline. I tell them about my wife giving the car away and they want to know where this girlfried lives, which I don’t know. I go wake the wife up and tell her she needs to get dressed and talk to these cops. I go back to the living room and one of the cops launches into this spiel about just doing his job and having recently completed some drug task force training. I’m wonder where he’s going w/ this when he informs me that he smells marijuana and asks if I smoke it, or if I’m growing any. This really pisses me off, I’m trying to help these guys out, I’m being very forthcomming to their questions, I’ve gotten my wife out of her sick bed when she needed the rest, and this bozo wants to come up with this crap. I invited them to leave my house. They go, but on the way out this cop has to get in his “nothin to hide” speech, at which point I tell him he’s way out of line. I meant for these guys to leave entirely, but they’re standing in the driveway, in the rain I might add. The wife comes out and decides she’d better help them, or they’re liable to hassle us some more. The first thing they question her about, is not the car they were so interested in, but whether or not I’m growing pot. She keeps saying no, so they finally get the info. about the car and leave. I honestly worried, for a couple of days, that these clowns were going to come back w/ a warrant and tear my house up. Fortunately they didn’t.
I will never invite a cop into my house again.
After hearing a knock at my college apartment back door, I look out the window to see a cop peering over our 6’ fence at the 5 1/2’ weed growing there. Bummer.
It helps when he’s your friend’s older brother and there to pick up a fridge you’ve donated since his paycheck is for squat, but still, a little rough on the old ticker.
Wow, I can’t believe anyone in this day and age would consent to a search. I can understand the pressure though…it can be hard to say no especially when you have (or think you have) nothing to hide.
I would have asked who made the complaint and if they refused to tell me then I would have refused the search.
