…specifically the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department. Seems you have a warrant out for having sold pot out of the house you were renting back in '06, and that I now own. The deputy came round to bang loudly on my door at 8:30 tonight. Scared the bejeebers out of me. And since I apparently look about your age and have a beard, as you do in the photo he showed me, he seemed a little dubious that I didn’t actually know you. Profiling and all that, I guess.
So, thanks for giving me a fright and putting the cops on me, all because you happened to sell some weed to the wrong party a while back. Twit.
Somebody sold pot two years ago, in a house that has since been sold, and the sheriff comes and pounds on your door tonight accusing you, against all evidence, of knowing that guy, and you accuse the pot seller of being a twit? There’s a twit in the equation of course, but he was the one pounding on your door.
You know I always wondered about that. I mean what makes them decide to serve a warrant?
I can see the worse the crime the faster they will go after someone but if the crime is a small one does it really take two years or more to get the time to serve it? Do they think the criminal is going to sit around for two years at the same address knowing there is a warrant out for them at that address.
Here in our small town I know a guy that has a warrant out for probation violation. It has been issued for over two years now. I see him around town all the time. Are the cops just not looking? Do they think he is going to turn himself in? Are they waiting on a do gooder to pick up the phone and tell the cops he is at X resturant or bar right now, you can pick him up. Are thy hoping he will commit another crime and they can snag him up that way?
I am sure it may be some type of man power issue. Are their different types or warrants? Some that say to go get him and others that just get dusty waiting for the crook to make a mistake and then they can snag them because of a warrant.
It’s true, he didn’t seem all that, er, enthusiastic about following up any leads. He never ended up asking me for my own ID, or even my full name, and when I suggested I could give him the contact details of the former owner, who presumably had rented the place to the Desperado Mr. Tucker, he kind of blew it off.
I was going to tell him he should get in touch with Tuckerfan, for obvious reasons, but I have a feeling that if I even mentioned something called the Straight DOPE in connnection with a drug warrant, all kinds of havoc would ensue.
I’m betting that someone at the station said, “Hey… Let’s go through all these old unclosed files and send someone out to see if we get lucky. You! Yeah. You! Go knock on this door and see if the guy answers. We need to get some of this damn paperwork cleaned up.”
IANAC, but around here that’s exactly how it works- when there’s nothing else going on, the Sheriff will say he wants x number of officers to go out and knock on doors today to enforce outstanding warrants.
When a friend of mine was a rookie he spent most of his on-job training time (each new fish is accompanied by a senior officer while on duty for three months) doing exactly that.
This thread is totally failing to convince me to avoid a life of crime. Actually, it’s making me consider taking it up. Anyone here know anything about pulling a bank job?
I’m in. I’m pretty sure there’s even a thread or two on how to safely launder our money! Besides, we have some pretty good lawyers on the boards to help us out of a jam.
And if they weren’t able to serve the warrant immediately after issue, it’s been sitting there with old information on it, such as the address that is no longer valid for the individual named. More than likely, it was a last attempt before the warrant is sent back to the issuing court as unserveable.
But I have to admit…when I read the OP, I had this scenario run through my mind.
<Knock on door>
<EK opens door>
Deputy: Justin Tucker?
EK: No, he doesn’t live here any more.
Deputy: And you are…?"
EK: El_KaBONG
Deputy: Hmmm…
I am another one who will say that this is something that the cops do on occassion - they go through all outstanding warrants and head to the last known address. If they pick up one or two out of a hundred - it is a victory. This is the cop equivalent of telemarketing. They know that 98% of you will be irritated that you were interupted at dinner time, but that 2% will give them something of what they want.
I had this happen to me once as well when I rented a house. 10:00 PM, we are all in bed, banging at the front door. I walk up to the door with my rope on and a .44 in my right hand. I see that it is the cops, and open up the door to talk. At that point, the belt on my rope starts to loosen up, and I have the choice of providing a full monty to the mixed gender cops, or freaking them out with the .44. I slowly put the .44 down on the floor out of sight, while still flashing the cops, and then fix my robe for the conversation.
They then went on to check the second house on the lot, that sat behind us. As they were leaving, female cop asks me if I thought THAT house would answer the door with the same amount of both style and preparation!
