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Comment by instaheat | Hacker News Reader

Here's a fact for you. I handed police the video evidence of the bonehead showing up earlier without a mask to case my house then came back 30 minutes later with a mask on but same clothes in full HD glory.

In a stroke of luck, I also saw him a few minutes after I arrived onsite (did a drive around the neighborhood) and he took off. I literally saw which apartment building he disappeared into.

Lets say there are 12 units in a building (it's a smaller complex built in the 90s) it would not take them long to catch this guy.

They did nothing. I gave them his face in HD and where he was located.

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Your understanding of how policing works is pretty flawed. Cops need warrants to go into any apartment. Also just because someone ran into an apt complex does not mean they live there. You need more probable cause to justify a warrant. What did you want the police to do pull everyone out of there apartments and hand search.

They did nothing because "the victim saw the perp run into that apartment building" doesn't give them probable cause to do anything except walk the halls if someone lets them in and hope to run across the guy.

What did you expect them to do? Search all twelve apartments without warrants?

That's not how the constitution works.

How about knock on some doors? "Have you seen this guy?"

No one said they had to go inside. BTW, these apartments I am referring to are completely open. Anyone can access. They're ghetto.

aaaaand there's the racism I was expecting.

I think ghetto is a perfectly fine description for a 2 star apartment complex that hasn’t been renovated since 1995.

A variety of races are residents, I’d imagine. But nice try.

I'm asking for a basic investigative inquiry. Not a full blown warrant. It's completely logical that the offender went to hide back at home.

Now, of course no one could have answered or they could have told the police to go away, but knocking on someone's door doesn't require a warrant.

Maybe he would have been dumb enough to open the door himself.

In any case, hope the $200 camera he stole was worth it. Almost cost him his life.

You would kill a thief for your 200$ camera?

Yes, absolutely.

He had on a ski mask and appeared to have a metal object in his hand on the video.

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