So... my Monday was pretty typical till I got home with Sam and had five police officers and detectives banging on our door with a search warrant. For OUR house. Uh, yeah.
I had literally been home maybe 5 minutes and was upstairs with Sam. Suddenly I heard a loud banging and Belly was downstairs and went nuts, of course. So Gertie (who was in the nursery with us) followed suit and went nuts. It was so loud (the banging), that I really didn't know what it was. It wasn't till I got Gertie put up in our bedroom and took Sam downstairs that I realized someone was indeed at the door. Annoying.
I saw a tall slender guy outside our door who looked young from where I was standing. Great. Some high schooler trying to sell me a bucket of frozen cookie dough or some discount card. I don't have time for this, much less the cash. But wait... is that a...
gun? Yes, the dude has a bullet-proof vest and a gun on his hip. OK... maybe he's not fundraising.
So I open the door with Sam on my hip while trying to restrain Belly, who is still barking like mad. Now that I'm in front of the door, I see it's not just this one dude, but FIVE. One uniformed officer and four detectives (as I later learned). I of course let them in and the main guy explained that they had a search warrant for our house but didn't really elaborate on why exactly. (And while I'm sure I had every right to question them and find out exactly why they were here, I was just trying to process the fact that there were 5 men with badges and guns coming into my house. So I said, "yes sir.")
I soon learned that someone reported a stolen iPhone and the GPS on said phone had pointed to our house at some point over the weekend. So I was questioned about where we had been over the weekend, who lived in our house, had anybody been staying with us, etc etc... had we gotten a new phone recently... Eventually I was able to call the hub and he of course came flying home (his office is just a few miles away, thank goodness). Obviously no phone on our property and the GPS, while very close in proximity, still has some margin for error. Well, "error" is not really the best word... but you know it's like, the phone is *here* give or take 15 or 20 feet in any direction. Well I guess the "center" of that area hit right on the edge of our house, but the perimeter went into our neighbor's house as well. So maybe our neighbor is involved? Who knows! It's all very strange. And seriously... FOUR detectives in separate unmarked cars searching for... a phone?! Makes me wonder if there is more to it.
Well, as I said... no phone found on our property. And they searched high and low, including in the toilets! The officer and detectives were actually super nice, once I could get past the sheer shock of the situation. They were really appreciative of our cooperation and very sincere. While the detectives were searching the house (and before the hub got home), I was being babysat by the officer in uniform. He had to escort me around the house if I needed something (my phone, Sam's bottle, my shotgun, etc.). He was there literally as an "officer in uniform" because the detectives were not. He was not involved with the case at all. So we just talked about the Olympics while the other guys fished around in our toilets.
The hub of course had to take pictures with the cops and post it on Facebook. And I'm sure we'll have to have a page in Sam's book of firsts... "My first run-in with the cops!" Several friends commented that they'd have been pissed about it. I mean, yeah I guess it's a little invasive, but I certainly wasn't pissed. More so embarrassed that my stack of freshly washed unmentionables was sitting on the dining room table. But these guys were completely courteous and honestly just doing their job. Nothing to get hot about, in my opinion. I'm sure they are accustomed to dealing with idiots and crazies. We got some good stories out of the officer babysitting me. Did you know they have to be tasered in training before they can use a taser gun? Yeah, we learned all kinds of fun things.
The crew did go over to our neighbor's house, but they weren't home. Interested to see how this unfolds... the hub's been listening to the police radio thing all night. Too funny. Well, definitely not the Monday afternoon I envisioned, but all's well that ends well, I suppose! But let's hope for a less dramatic Tuesday, OK?
