About a week ago there was a traffic accident down the block from me. My 93 yo mom with dementia and I were both in bed and asleep, not one light on in the house but car in driveway. I am sound asleep and awakened by someone pounding on my front door with the bottom of their fist. I have a doorbell but did not hear it ring. My mom was awakened first and was at the front door asking who was at the door and about to open it. I am full of adrenaline I yell at my mom to get away from the door and come back up the stairs to the bedroom level. The guy keeps pounding with his fist. With my mom safely out of the way I ask who it is and what he wants, I am mad and aggressive and my voice clearly shows it. He identifies himself verbally as county sheriff and wants to look at my security cam footage. I then see lights on the road and calm down. I tell him to wait until I open the door for him and I go to throw clothes on and disarm. Now he is shining a flashlight looking at stickers my mom had on the window from supporting the sheriffs and fire depts. I yell at him to turn the flashlight off. A minute or so later I let him in. My mom is at her bedroom door scared and he is looking all over the place like he is casing the place. I go to get my PC to show him the cameras and for a second it looked like he was going to follow me. I told him to wait where he was, I get the computer, show him that there was nothing that could help him, and sent him on his way.
In the past several years the county sheriff has been called to our house several times. My mom has been the target of scumbag neighbors, fake religious scammers, a guy posing as a contractor who came in the house and robbed her, and a few other miscreants looking to pull something on her. The sheriff has been beyond useless, to the point of when she was robbed they didn't even convert the incident report to a police report, he had tried to get into a locked room and they would not check the knob for prints.
So now about this latest thing, maybe I am over reacting. I would expect under the circumstances that long after dark they would have politely knocked with their knuckles rather than banging with their fist. I would expected that with all the lights off they would have maybe come back during the day after a polite knock did not get a response. I don't know if they rang the doorbell so there is that. When I was already clearly pissed did he really need to shine a flashlight into the house and then clearly look around at everything after I let him in?
How do you cops typically handle approaching a house with no lights on in the country after dark when you are not looking for someone or something specific in that house that you are suspicious of?
In the past several years the county sheriff has been called to our house several times. My mom has been the target of scumbag neighbors, fake religious scammers, a guy posing as a contractor who came in the house and robbed her, and a few other miscreants looking to pull something on her. The sheriff has been beyond useless, to the point of when she was robbed they didn't even convert the incident report to a police report, he had tried to get into a locked room and they would not check the knob for prints.
So now about this latest thing, maybe I am over reacting. I would expect under the circumstances that long after dark they would have politely knocked with their knuckles rather than banging with their fist. I would expected that with all the lights off they would have maybe come back during the day after a polite knock did not get a response. I don't know if they rang the doorbell so there is that. When I was already clearly pissed did he really need to shine a flashlight into the house and then clearly look around at everything after I let him in?
How do you cops typically handle approaching a house with no lights on in the country after dark when you are not looking for someone or something specific in that house that you are suspicious of?
