"POLICE! SEARCH WARRANT! APT. XXX!"

April 7, 2015 6:14 AM

I live in an apartment (that I moved into less than a month ago) and was awakened this morning about 6 a.m. by a very loud bang that I thought was a gunshot. Immediately rolled out of bed and hit the floor and went to my closet. Then I heard a mechanical woman's voice, sounded pre-recorded for sure, say the street address, and then repeated, "POLICE! SEARCH WARRANT! APT. XXX!" over and over and over. About 7-8 minutes later I could see flashing lights. At some point after that I fell back asleep.

What the hell happened this morning? I actually moved out of a "bad" neighborhood and into a much more affluent, "good" part of town when I came here a couple weeks ago. I heard gunshots many times at the former place. Could someone busting down the door sound like that? Why would the police show up and say "search warrant" at 6 a.m.? Where did they get the weird robot lady voice? It was very frightening and I'd love to just know what was going on.

I don't know where the apartment number they called out is located -- I tried this morning to find it, but the buildings are numbered confusingly. It could be the building next door to mine.

posted by fiercecupcake to Grab Bag (20 answers total)

Call your local precinct and ask.
posted by rtha at 6:19 AM on April 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

Why would the police show up and say "search warrant" at 6 a.m.?

Presumably they were executing a search warrant.... do you have any reason to believe that is not what was happening?
posted by melissasaurus at 6:19 AM on April 7, 2015 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: Oh, obviously, it wasn't MY apartment number, or else I figure I'd probably know what was going on. ;]
posted by fiercecupcake at 6:19 AM on April 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

It seems likely they are trying to catch a suspect at home and when they can be caught offguard.
posted by srboisvert at 6:21 AM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: melissasaurus, assume a reasonable level of intelligence. Yes, they were obviously executing a search warrant. But what does that mean in the context of a big bang and the creepy voice? At 6 a.m.? Would they bust down someone's door for a search warrant?
posted by fiercecupcake at 6:22 AM on April 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

Best answer: I didn't mean to insult -- it's not always clear what level of familiarity people have with the legal system.

Yes, they'd bust down someone's door, especially if they thought the person inside might be destroying whatever evidence they were looking for. Maybe the robotic voice was a voice over the walkie/radio or the police car PA system? In most cases, they have to announce that they're the police and are executing a search warrant unless they obtain a no-knock warrant.
posted by melissasaurus at 6:27 AM on April 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: The bang could be breaking the door down, yes. The weird voice might just be someone using a bullhorn or maybe the police cruiser loudspeaker. In theory cops are supposed to knock and announce their presence but in practice there are lots of exceptions or ways around this, especially if there's a concern that the suspect may destroy evidence (e.g. flushing drugs down the toilet). Just call the precinct and ask. Or if that weirds you out call whoever does the police blotter for your local paper.
posted by Wretch729 at 6:27 AM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Regarding the mechanical-sounding voice: I live across the street from a freeway, and a couple of times a week we hear the CHP hollering at some driver to pull over; because it's done via a PA/loudspeaker, it sounds very not-like-a-person. I was pulled over like that (expired tags!) and yeah, it sounds robocop-like from inside the car being yelled at, too, partly because the officer doing the yelling is also enunciating in a way that people don't do when they're just talking to you normally, or even yelling at you normally.
posted by rtha at 6:32 AM on April 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

Mod note: As a quick reminder, please don't publish profile page info in comments (those pages are non-indexed and only visible to members). Thanks.
posted by taz (staff) at 6:45 AM on April 7, 2015

As far as "why 6am," what better time to be sure someone is home? You don't want to risk giving them a chance to flee if you come to their house when they're not there and someone warns them. And no one's at their most alert or ready to resist at 6am.
posted by MsMolly at 6:49 AM on April 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

Police once came to my house to serve a bounced-check warrant on my roommate at 2 am. $100 or so, nothing felony-level. At least they didn't break down the door!
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:05 AM on April 7, 2015

If it was in fact a drug raid, the sound you heard could have also conceivably been a flashbang grenade.
posted by neroli at 7:11 AM on April 7, 2015 [2 favorites]

Best answer: I live in a less good neighborhood, so let me tell you what happened.

I was awakened this morning about 6 a.m.
This was intentional in order to make sure the suspect did not have a chance to move the product, or flush it down the toilet, or throw it away or whatever. 6am is ideal, people doing naughty things tend to be home from their naughty activities by 6am and have rarely gotten up to do more naughty things.

by a very loud bang that I thought was a gunshot.
Agree with neroli, this was a flashbang grenade - which is extra fun, because it means that the police were concerned that the suspect might be somewhat dangerous. I'm going to guess that this was a guns violation or there was some concern the suspect might have a gun.

Immediately rolled out of bed and hit the floor and went to my closet.
That's not a bad idea.

Then I heard a mechanical woman's voice, sounded pre-recorded for sure, say the street address, and then repeated, "POLICE! SEARCH WARRANT! APT. XXX!" over and over and over.
Not sure about why it was mechanical, but I think the people who commented so far are onto something.

About 7-8 minutes later I could see flashing lights.
At this point, there isn't really a need for the element of surprise and they may have been blocking traffic, so flashing lights makes sense.

At some point after that I fell back asleep.
Excellent.

Two things you can now do to find out more. Call the police department non-emergency number, there is someone whose job it is to talk to the public about these things. I forget what they are called. Just call up and ask to speak to the community representation person as you want to find out about a search warrant that was executed today. The second thing to do is find out if your community has an e-mail list and get on it. That way when stuff like this happens, most likely someone else will have already called the police and you can find out without too much trouble.

I got a similar wake-up a few months ago, but we had helicopters at 5am. Fun!
posted by Toddles at 8:22 AM on April 7, 2015 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: OK, last reply in this thread, I'm trying not to threadsit.

Thanks for your excellent reply, Toddles. I too actually thought it might be a flashbang -- the sound had more in common with an exploding propane canister (from when I lived across from a meth lab that exploded, lol) than it did with a gunshot. I was just too scared of it BEING a flashbang to really contemplate that as a possibility. Those things are ridiculous to use in high-density housing.

The place I moved away from had helicopters at all hours, and once we had a fugitive hiding under our house (!), so this ain't my first rodeo, but hell, I didn't expect it where I moved to. Guess there are lousy folks everywhere.
posted by fiercecupcake at 8:36 AM on April 7, 2015

My neighbors at an old apartment (in a pretty decent neighborhood) were raided by the DEA/FBI, also at almost precisely 6am, and also involving a flashbang grenade. It seems like it's their basic M.O. neighbors were part of a prescription drug ring, not just petty criminals.
posted by LionIndex at 8:37 AM on April 7, 2015

a few months ago some apartments about a block away from me were awoken at 5:30 am with flashbang grenades and an announcement of a warrant while the door was being knocked down. it was for drugs - but i assume /hope it wasn't meth because that method of entry seems pretty dangerous if they were cooking.
posted by nadawi at 11:33 AM on April 7, 2015

oh, and after the initial flashbang and announcement, the street was flooded with flashing lights from cop cars.
posted by nadawi at 11:34 AM on April 7, 2015

It's like Facebook for the neighbors you don't like well enough to be Facebook friends with, but nextdoor.com is really great for this sort of thing. Chances are, if this is an unusual occurrence in your neighborhood, people are talking about it and have some concrete information. And if it IS a common occurrence, they are talking about that.

Honestly, I was amazed at how active the site is within my neighborhood.
posted by dirtdirt at 1:43 PM on April 7, 2015

there is someone whose job it is to talk to the public about these things. I forget what they are called.

Often it is a community liaison officer.
posted by DarlingBri at 6:35 PM on April 7, 2015

Just here to Nth that early morning seems to be standard. I think the time when the FBI raided the house near us it was at 4:30 AM.
posted by salvia at 8:06 PM on April 7, 2015