I was SWATed last night.

[cevad]

I want to bed really early last night, 6:30 or so, so I was sound asleep when I was woken up by the police pounding on my door at 10:36. Apparently I was accused of running around the apartment building naked, pounding on people's doors and making a ruckus. Someone claimed they saw a person come into my apartment. Thankfully, it didn't take them long to go away after I invited them to check and make sure I really was the only person in my apartment. I hadn't locked the door last night, I will from now on, I think.
I found myself in a strange state of mind during this whole event, sort of like I was outside myself looking on as things happened to someone else. I remember looking at the flashlight beams sweeping across my apartment and thinking it could have been a scene out of Twin Peaks. It took until 12:30 or later before I progressed through feeling detached to upset to finally being calm enough to return to bed. But during the calm-down time I did go over my security camera footage. Last month I found it in the clearance bin at Walmart and played with enough to realise I had payed too much, and had left it clipped to a computer case pointing nowhere in particular. But it did capture some audio of the police invasion.

This is the second time this has happened. Last time it was an accusation of running around out behind the apartment building waving a gun around.

So, does anyone have any experience or suggestions on how to deal with this?? Is there anything I can do?

AV here: https://youtu.be/d5MfLLzaBLk

Comments

[bikergeek]

Holy shit.

Is there some neighbor, or maybe an online crank, who has it in for you and has decided to elevate some kind of pissing match?

[cevad]

Not that I know of. I'm pretty much a hermit as far as interacting with the locals goes. If I try speculating, I immediately wind up in the crazy unlikely area.

[bikergeek]

Sometimes being a hermit or being asocial is enough for someone who's really bored or really hateful to want to bully you or fuck with you, sadly. Some people never progress beyond sixth grade.

[rmd]

While it doesn't sound like you're the victim of a full-on Internet Hate Mob, it sounds like someone may be fucking with you. The folks over at crashoverridenetwork.com might have suggestions on how to talk to your local law enforcement and let them know this has happened before and you're concerned. You can email them at help@crashoverridenetwork.com

Nothing useful to suggest

[khatru]

Just acknowledging that's seriously fucked, and was part of our paranoia when the kids were little, tho our Evil Authority of (non)choice was DYFS. (Division of Youth and Family Services).

And I can't imagine living in a multi-unit dwelling where I don't know all the other people and leaving my door unlocked. Tho that may be more growing up in NYC metro area.

Overreacted?

[cevad]

I might have overreacted after the police invasion of the other day. Now, I've talked to the police and my neighbors and have a much fuller idea of what went on. Possibly even more disturbing than what I'd thought happened. I've also managed to get the recordings off the cheap security camera I happened to have running that evening, and was able to find some audio evidence.

The neighbor two apartments to the west said that someone was knocking on his window and when he looked out there was a naked guy. My neighbors reaction was to close his blinds and make sure his door was locked. Then my neighbor across the way came up the stairs on his way home and he sees the naked guy. When challenged, the naked guy enters my apartment. My neighbor returns home to grab his phone and calls 911. He says that if he hadn't thought I was out he would have followed the guy in.
Meanwhile, I'm sound asleep through all of this, with a strange naked guy in my apartment.

Here's a time line of what I found on the security cam video.
2017-06-29 21:46:04 First latch click
2017-06-29 21:46:26 Second latch click
2017-06-29 22:01:34 Beginning of speech sounds
2017-06-29 22:01:50 End of speech sounds
2017-06-29 22:36:34 Police Arrive
2017-06-29 22:41:40 Police Gone

35 minutes from the speech sounds to when the cops got here, with 3 cars. Thankfully, it wasn't an emergency or anything.

I figure the first two clicky noises were someone checking the door to see if it was open.

So, it looks like there was a real happening, that did warrant some police response this time. The last time, still seems to be just a harassment with no discernible cause. Sadly, that time I didn't make a record.

Re: Overreacted?

[khatru]

Hmm. Pity there's no clue wrt ID naked guy.