A friend of mine lived in an area of Los Angeles that was near a notoriously high-crime sector of that city. To that end, he had reinforced his house and the entries thereof, to the point that his front entry was an armored “airlock” style double door chamber, much like those at a jewelry store. Except his had a 90 degree turn and didn’t allow enough room to swing a ram to open the second door.
About a year after he’d completed his modifications, one of the houses down the block became a meth lab/crack house. All the neighbors complained to the police about it. Eventually the police got around to raiding the place... but guess whose house they came to? Yup, my friend’s, because they couldn’t be bothered to read the house numbers properly.
I’m told the look on the SWAT members’ faces was priceless when they tried to ram the front door down and failed. They also tried to lob teargas in and effect entry through the windows when that failed; it didn’t work well through the polycarbonate sheeting he had instead of glass. He had a camera and intercom system installed, which the police didn’t bother to use. After he finally stopped laughing at their attempts and before they brought up some real equipment, he used his intercom to ask the police what they thought they were doing. They then claimed they had a warrant for this address. “Really? Hold it up to the camera and I’ll let you in if it’s valid.... Um, you might want to check the address on that, and then look at the number on the mailbox and painted on the curb.”
He never let them in, LAPD milled around for a while and then left.
The stuff of my dreams. Thanks.
About a year after he’d completed his modifications, one of the houses down the block became a meth lab/crack house. All the neighbors complained to the police about it. Eventually the police got around to raiding the place... but guess whose house they came to? Yup, my friend’s, because they couldn’t be bothered to read the house numbers properly.
I’m told the look on the SWAT members’ faces was priceless when they tried to ram the front door down and failed. They also tried to lob teargas in and effect entry through the windows when that failed; it didn’t work well through the polycarbonate sheeting he had instead of glass. He had a camera and intercom system installed, which the police didn’t bother to use. After he finally stopped laughing at their attempts and before they brought up some real equipment, he used his intercom to ask the police what they thought they were doing. They then claimed they had a warrant for this address. “Really? Hold it up to the camera and I’ll let you in if it’s valid.... Um, you might want to check the address on that, and then look at the number on the mailbox and painted on the curb.”
He never let them in, LAPD milled around for a while and then left.
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Wonderful story. The way that swat teams are acting, you will see more of this sort of thing. We actually had a state representative try to make “fortifying a house” illegal.