Last night around 2AM at my apartment complex, I noticed two guys snooping around and trying car door handles. I looked out my window, saw what was going on, and decided to call the police.
While waiting for them to arrive, I went outside to keep watch. When the cops pulled up, they came in with sirens, saw me (tall, black hoodie), and detained me because I matched the description of “two tall guys in black hoodies.”
It took them about half an hour to confirm I actually lived there and wasn’t one of the suspects.
Now I’m wondering if I messed up by going outside. AITA for stepping out and making things harder, or were the cops just being dumb for detaining the person who called them in the first place?
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Last night around 2AM at my apartment complex, I noticed two guys snooping around and trying car door handles. I looked out my window, saw what was going on, and decided to call the police.
While waiting for them to arrive, I went outside to keep watch. When the cops pulled up, they came in with sirens, saw me (tall, black hoodie), and detained me because I matched the description of “two tall guys in black hoodies.”
It took them about half an hour to confirm I actually lived there and wasn’t one of the suspects.
Now I’m wondering if I messed up by going outside. AITA for stepping out and making things harder, or were the cops just being dumb for detaining the person who called them in the first place?
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OP has offered the following explanation for why they think they might be the asshole:
> I might be the asshole because I went outside after calling the cops instead of just waiting inside. By doing that, I put myself in a position where I looked like the suspects and made the cops’ job harder, which could have been avoided if I had stayed indoors.
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Contest mode is 1.5 hours long on this post.
NTA – but pretty silly. Don’t describe someone then dress like them.
Also, what were you going to do it you seen them? You either get hurt or have to get a lawyer to prove reasonable force.
Call cops and record from your window.
I don’t think you’re an asshole, I just think you’re dumb. Emergency situation safety 101, stay where you are. Inside your house was the safest place for you, you’re lucky that all that happened, you could’ve been attacked, robbed, or shot. Just think before you do something like that again.
Answer C) You didn’t make a great decision to go outside wearing the exact same thing that you just called the police and described the suspects wearing.
Police aren’t all-knowing, and they have no way of immediately figuring out that you were the one that called.
That said, it was good that you called. If you felt that you could do it safely it probably wasn’t that bad of an idea to go outside. Personally I would have just continued to watch through the window. You don’t know who you’re dealing with, how desperate they are, etc.
NAH
NTA. You did your civic duty by calling the cops. That was the most important thing here. However, waiting outside then in the same outfit as the perps wasn’t the wisest idea.
How are the cops supposed to know who called them (or more accurately who called their dispatcher)? — they haven’t even heard your voice, and they definitely don’t know what you look like. You don’t magically radiate good guy energy, there’s no minimap where you show up as a green good guy dot. Are the cops supposed to let anybody who says they called them go? then any criminal caught by cops could say that.
YTA for thinking you’re special.
If you hadn’t gone outside they might have stolen a car. You’re not the ahole. The thieves are.
NTA but like, deadass bro?
Wow, this is a new low. “Standing while black” is about the stupidest charge known to mankind.
ur not an AH but you are kind of an idi0t lol…
“Hello officer there are two men wearing blue jeans and a pink shirt outside robbing cars!!”
lemme just put on my pink shirt and jeans to go wait outside for the cops.
Omg hahahahahaha are you for real
You: “Hello, 911! There’s a dangerous criminal in a red dress right outside! Come quick!”
Also you, selecting a crimson frock and donning it “excellent, now I’m ready to stand outside right where I told the police the dangerous criminal was!”
Dude… really?
NTA, but not the wisest move to stay outside when the cops arrived. Good job calling the cops. I understand wanting to keep an eye on what’s happening until they arrive, but stay close to your apartment, and when the cops get close, go back inside and let them assess the situation. You can always come out later once the cops have settled down and aren’t hammers seeing everyone as nails.
“Yes officer, there are two escaped convicts running down my street”
Hmmm now to don my finest escaped convict cosplay and wait for the constables to arrive
“Great heavens officer! Why am I being detained? Surely it was not my dashing black and white prison jumpsuit that has fooled you?”
For everybody claiming that OP was asking for trouble being outside dressed like the people looking for unlocked car doors, and that the police were correct in detaining him, please use some logic here.
How many fucking criminals are going to stand around waiting to talk to cops when they hear the police sirens approaching???
You did nothing wrong OP, and the police were merely ignorant and abusive – as they were raised and then further trained to be. If this took place in America, I am assuming that you are of a non-white ethnicity. Because when cops see a white person standing on the lawn at 2am waiting for them, they rarely assume that person is a criminal.
NTA