Sorry, I had to go get some beer now that I'm calm enough to drive. And I had to do a little googling.
So I open the door and there are two very large officers standing there, cautious and watchful. They kept their hands resting on their very large pistols with a kind of very studied casualness.
So I invite them in. They come in slowly and carefully.
They start asking some questions, I start answering. The whole time they are just watching me. I'm being polite, friendly, and as calm as I can but I can tell they can still see I'm tweaked to the max and still pumping with adrenelin. Basically I'm still so pissed I can harldy see straight but I'm trying hard not to let it show.
They want my drivers license and I say its in the bedroom and I start to turn around and go get it but kinda feel that whole room tense up. (OK I'm not thinking straight. No coffee, too much excitement for early morning...) I stop and turn around slowly and smile "uhh I mean its in my bedroom. You want me to go get it?"
The older cop just nods stoned face, not saying a word. I go back to my bedroom but I don't think he followed me which seems really wierd now. I wish he would have followed me so he could watch me and feel more comfortable. I REALLY wanted the guys to feel comfortable.
When I come back, the older cop had positioned himself at the front of the hallway leading to the bedroom (maybe he was watching me down the hall). The other cop had moved from by the door, across the room to the other corner where he could watch the second bedroom and the older cop at the from of the hall.
That kinda creeped me out when I came back and everyone had drastically changed position across the room.
So I hand over my id and UPS slip and he tells me to continue the story. So I lay it all out. I'm doing voices, I throw in some mime, shadow puppets... the works. I'm going thru the story and slowly I can feel the older cop relaxing. He starts to chuckle as I tell my tale. Even the muscle cop, who took up high cover position, relaxed and started walking around the room looking as my stuff (not staring at me which made me feel better). Every once in a while the older cop would laugh and tell me to slow down so he could write it all and the muscle cop would ask me a question about an antique thing or one of my oil paintings while he was catching up.
Finally the older cop just put away his note book and said: "Look, I wasn't there. I can't say you were in the right, I can't say she was in the right. I can say we were sent here to investigate a complaint of public disturbance against you, but I don't see anything here that justifies that. This is a civil
matter that you need to take up with your apartment management Moday. Don't go back to the office this weekend. Straighten it out next week when the manager is there. But you can tell them that we came here and talked to you and determined there was no misconduct on your part. If they want to see our report they can. Other than that we don't need to take up any more of your time. Just calm down, because I can see you are excited, be an adult and straighten it out next week with the management."
So I'm like ....fine, great. Can you at least go with me down there with my drivers license and UPS slip so I can get my freakin $1,000 camera from Juanita the gang bangress??? I don't understand why I am being denied my own lawful property.
"No no no. We can't get involved in that. You go back down there and we are going to have a problem with you. Thats a civil matter and we can't get involved."
I just stand there dumbfounded as the cops walk away. I have been treated rudely, unprofessionally, and denied access to my own lawful private property, and the cops can't get involved!
Sooooooo thats it. I'm sorry, I know you were expecting a big finale. Wab barrackaded in his apartment with his Springfield 45, shooting through the window at the cop cars and those big flood lights shinning into my apartment and me yelling through the broken glass: "YOU"LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE YOU DIRTY YELLOW RATS!!!!!"
But thats how my day ended, not with a bang but with a whimper.
I have several questions though. This is a pretty varied community with different educations and experiences.
I would like to believe I could reason with the management. But I'm not holding my breath. Its been my experience that most apartment people are like carnie freaks. They tend to close ranks and protect their own and see the tenants as inconvieniences.
I assume that there isn't any reasonable chance they can terminate my lease because of a run in with the staff? I plan to get out of this *****e hole as fast as possible but I don't want to have to be fighting an eviction notice to make it difficult for me to move in somewhere else. I've never been late on a rent or utils check the 10 years I've been here. I assume since the cops found no basis for the complaint, they would have no grounds. Am I wrong? Do I have any recourse against unfair retaliation?
Also, I'm still pissed I was denied my property. Infuriated actually. It just seems illegal to me. Irregardless of any argument or hard feelings, once I have presented my drivers license and UPS slip I cannnot see how they had any right to deny me my property! Now looking it up, I guess it wouldn't be considered theft. I doubt anyone believes she has the intention to permanently keep my property. But there is something called Criminal Conversion of Private Property.
Wiki:
Criminal conversion, in criminal law, is usually defined as the crime of exerting unauthorised use or control of someone else's property. It differs from theft in that it does not include the element of intending to deprive the owner of the possession of that property. As such, it is a lesser included offense of the crime of theft.
An example might be tapping someone's wireless LAN or public utility line (which could also amount to theft of services). Another example might be taking a "joy ride" in a car, never intending to keep it from the owner. Some places have defined such conduct as a specific type of theft, perhaps with a modified penalty.
Note that the "unauthorized" use may begin after a period of authorized use, where, for example, a person rents a car then keeps it for an extra week without permission from the rental company. Another common example occurs when a person fails to report finding lost goods (including animals), intending only to keep them until someone asks for their return. When the intent becomes one of keeping them, it's a theft.
Do I have a leg to stand on? She unlawfully denied me possession of my lawful private property against my permission. Even if it was for a couple of days it doesn't matter. (Like the joy-rider example.)
The apartment management are going to blow me off I suspect, possible even try and harrass and evict me. If I had a real legal club to wield I'd feel much better. If I had an actual criminal complaint to file and use as a bargining chip to either press of drop I would feel in a better position. I don't know why the cops blew me off. Maybe it was too subtle a legal point for them, maybe they just had bigger fish to fry.
Am I completely off base?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Regards,
Wab
