“They awoke to find the officers in the house”
The sleeping innocent resident has the right to defend himself with deadly force if necessary. When woken up at 3 AM, a person may not see or understand very well, and believe himself in danger. The police, highly trained to recognize danger and react, will shoot holes in the innocent resident.
The next day the media will say that the shooting was justified.
Investigating a report of a prowler, they found my back door open and entered to investigate.
If this wasn't bad enough, they made fun of my dog because she didn't bark at them.
The two cop morons should have just left a note on the front door. About 22 years ago I surprised an intruder in my house and gave him the butt end a shotgun to the side of his head the way they taught me in the service. I probably would have finished him off if he hadn’t been out cold. The stock still has a dent in it from the incident.
"I was violated, but ... I wasn't physically damaged," Molde said of what he considers an invasion of privacy.
The officers told Molde his garage door was open, the TV was on, keys to his truck were left in the ignition and the door to his house was ajar.
Police said the intrusion was justified because the officers' initial door knocks went unanswered. Police went inside to check if anything was wrong, Sgt. Jim Puncochar said.
He said the kids were afraid to wake their dad, so the officers went upstairs.
There seem to be a lot of replies to this thread that do not take account of all of the facts given in the article. If the guy's door was ajar at 3:00 AM then that is suspicious. So the cops knock. Somehow they come into contact with the young boys who are in the living room, who do not want to go get the adult in the home. (Did the cops enter the house before talking to the boys? We don't know.) Yes, this is a strange situation and no one wants to wake up with strangers in their house but a lot of the replies here are objecting to the cops having done worse than what this article tells us they did.
Keys in the ignition is against the law, worthy of a citation.
Unlocked doors, TV on, kids sleeping, not illegal.
Unauthorized entry of private property is illegal.
Where I live, bullets are soon to follow.
This topic was covered on local radio this morning (Chris Baker on KTLK 100.3 fm). Anyway, the CP or Lakeville called into the show and basically defended the cops action. Seems they were just doing a public service. Uh huh. The man in the article also called in and held a different view. Later, his nitwit ex-wife called in and was happy that the cops came to check on her children because, she said, the ex was irresponsible. After that, the guy called back and said since the ex was airing their dirty laundry on the radio, he felt people should know the reason she was an ‘ex’ - she’d been sleeping around with 3 fireman. Seems pretty clear that the nanny-state fan ex-wife liked being screwed by public ‘protectors.’
How times change.
I hope his toothbrush was wet.
“The officers told Molde his garage door was open, the TV was on, keys to his truck were left in the ignition and the door to his house was ajar”
AJAR as in OPEN
And small children easily accessible to any creep that decided to walk up. If any of you critics has ever had a child snatched OUT OF YOUR HOME while you were sleeping you might have a different take on the actions of the police.
Sounds like an excellent way to get someone, police and/or the homeowner, shot. Would be here in Texas. What idiots.
I had police officer prowling around in my back yard. My fault in part, because I'd been pounding out in the garage at o-dark-thirty, and the neighbors reported it. But he sure jumped when I turned on the flood lights. (And then discretely put the pistol on the bookshelf by the door. :)
Seems a more sensible, and safer, type of "gentle reminder".