M
minli
Guest
I have had a bit of a sittuation occur at my home recently (within 48 hours). I am a homeowner with two large dogs my husband and I have as companions and protectors. On Wednesday my husband and I came home to find our usually locked (key-type lock) gate wide open, and both sliding glass doors leading into the house were open. Our dogs were missing. We investigated to make sure everything was still here, and examined the gate. We found the lock mangled and obviously tampered with laying on the ground. Alex, my husband, and I went searching for our dogs, and were out until 2 am. Yesterday morning we recieved a visit from a police officer. He claims he was called out because our dogs had somehow broken out of the back yard, and were being protective of our property, thus scaring neighboors. Anyways, instead of calling animal control ( which was never done, by anyone) this police office decided to order one of my neighboors to break the lock off of the gate. I don't know how they managed to get the lock off, but in the process it ruined my entire gate. (it warped the boards, so the gate cannot be propely shut and locked again). The police officer also issued my husband a ticket for dogs at large. Now I have a few questions: 1. is there anything I can do about the officers decision to allow this neighboor to commit breaking and entering & tresspassing? (ex. file a formal complaint?) 2. if I can file a complaint, what are the chances of action being taken against this officer? 3. what are my rights, as far as having my property exposed for several hours,(open for robbery, I mean he didn't even close the gate back up!) and having said property damaged. 4. should he have been able to issue a ticket in the course of his investigation, considering he failed to follow proceedure? 5. by law aren't officers supposed to notify you of damage caused, and that they were there in the first place?
This, as you can imagine, is extreemly upsetting. We thought we had been victims of attempted robbery, and now no longer feel safe in our home. We have to settle the issue with the ticket by 9-20-00. Last night we purchased fencing materials, gate materials, new locks, and secuity cameras. In addition to the above metioned questions, I would really like to know what we can do about this ticket. We have made it impossible for our dogs to ever escape again, and in light of the violations we have suffered I don't feel it would be just to add a fine to everything else. Also what kind of action, if any, can we take against the neighboor who physically broke into the property? Thank you so much for allowing me to ask my many questions here. I am sorry for the length of this post, but I'm at my wits end. Once again thank you!!
Minli
This, as you can imagine, is extreemly upsetting. We thought we had been victims of attempted robbery, and now no longer feel safe in our home. We have to settle the issue with the ticket by 9-20-00. Last night we purchased fencing materials, gate materials, new locks, and secuity cameras. In addition to the above metioned questions, I would really like to know what we can do about this ticket. We have made it impossible for our dogs to ever escape again, and in light of the violations we have suffered I don't feel it would be just to add a fine to everything else. Also what kind of action, if any, can we take against the neighboor who physically broke into the property? Thank you so much for allowing me to ask my many questions here. I am sorry for the length of this post, but I'm at my wits end. Once again thank you!!
Minli