SWAT team hanging out (courtesy ktvu.com)

“It started just before 10:00 a.m. when Alameda County [CA] Sheriff’s deputies went to serve an eviction notice to a tenant,” ktvu.com reports. “Hayward police say when deputies entered the home, they found suspicious notes indicating there were explosives inside the home. That’s when the bomb squad and SWAT where called to the scene, and streets were blocked off to traffic. Neighbors in the surrounding homes were told to evacuate. One of them told KTVU she text messaged with the man, who police aren’t identifying yet . . .

“When I text him I just said, ‘the bomb squad is here, cops are here’,” Jenny Raisler said reading their text exchange on her phone. “I was just saying, ‘Look, if you went crazy and made a bomb, let me know so I can get out of here!’ He just said, ‘I have no idea what they’re (law enforcement) talking about’.” . . .

In the end, law enforcement determined there was no one home, and no bombs inside. Officers did recover weapons and will be checking to see if they are registered.

Hayward police are not releasing the name of the man who they believed was in the home, but said they are still looking for him.

Bomb maker or not, I would not want to be that guy. Know what I mean? [h/t JL]

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72 COMMENTS

  1. Knock knock. Who’s there? Nobody. Nobody who? Nobody but a dog please don’t shoot me!

    All jokes aside. This could have been just really dumb and the notes could have been completely innocent but I’m sure the evicted guy will be demonized any way. Maybe he was writing poems about how someone “dropped a bomb” on him metaphorically speaking.

  2. Wait…did I read this right? The deputies were inside the home, saw the note, then instead of casing the rest of the house they just left and called the SWAT team? Wouldn’t they have already known that no one was in the premises?

    • Why let common sense get in the way of some good old-fashioned pants shitting hysteria?

    • Come on now, you just are too reasonable! Drama! Action! That is what we want, not a simple no one home, come back some other time. Great observation!

      • The good news is that police Rambos didn’t heave an incendiary device or flash bang that burned baby. Remember that episode?

    • I think there were two trails of crap out the front door. I don’t blame them for booking one bit.

    • I’m not a fan of the recent trend of overzealous and frivolous SWAT team action, but in this case I think when the officers saw the notes they claim was saying there were explosives in the premises they did the right thing and followed procedure. Now, if you want to argue with them taking SEVEN HOURS to figure out there was no danger, that I agree is beyond ridiculous.

    • Your post is what I was thinking. If this guy were charged with anything, and I can’t imagine with what, were I on the jury I would probably fall out of the chair with laughter.

  3. Wait wait wait…they ENTERED a home to serve an eviction NOTICE? If it was a notice and not an order of eviction, they had no right to enter at all. From what I can tell, this guy DID NOTHING WRONG. And on top of that, according to one of the guys at an legs, guns are not “registered” with the DOJ–they just keep a copy of the 4473 in an electronica and searchable data base, but it is not “registration.” (mmm, yeah.) IT is also true that until this past January, long guns were not registered at all (now all sales have the registration information). Full of fail here.

      • Well, it is California. Its odd that police piss their pants because someone has a gun in their house. These guys should get in another line of work.

    • Mark N.
      My question too. Assuming the StateRunMedia got the facts straight, an exercise in wishful thinkig at best…

      this smells more like parallel construction to me. My guess is an analyst wannabe applicant for the academy, bored sitting reading credit checks and message boards, like ttag forums, or chats on COD, doing his lowest paid contractor job, on the mid-watch chair for homeland domestic security, in mid california, bored out of his skull at the fusion center slipped a tip to someone…

      Probably his SWAT buds needed a reason for a callout, you know a budget review coming up, or the Chief has to get his grant approved for that MRAP buy pending decision at County Board of Supervisors…

      Or the Union steward sees the overtime stats slipping…

      whatever…maybe his GF is a hotie, y’know DA BOMB…

      Eeeek…did Farrago just say BOMB? Austin PD, stand by, BOLO enroute…launch the MRAP, Away the SWAT team, Away…

      ok, ok, j/k fer gawdsakes.

  4. 7 hours huh? Pathetic. I sure hope for his sake all his “weapons” were “registered”. I noticed they didn’t use the term “firearm”. And I thought Illinois sucked…

    • New month and bonus time for the goon squad. “Don’t forget to fill out your OT paperwork before you go home boys”

      • You got it! They would have waited longer, but the missus called and warned them that supper was getting cold.

      • Buyback? Did I hear buyback?

        No that would be enhanced coexist for agricultural outreach in danascus and tikrit, with un laundered taxpayer dollars, now that the concete for tunnels program has been cancelled in Gaza…the nice men with beards gett to blow up a few churches and cut off nun’s eads, in exchange for not blowing up our embassy, at least not this week, in baghdad, and we agree to go pi$$ on the israelus instead….

        look, theres a gun nut!
        war on wimmen!
        y’know like that.

        wait, I think I got my leos and foreign sales orograms mixed up again…
        one gamma ray too many thru the tin foil I guess.

  6. California makes it as easy as possible to SWAT your neighbor, so that’s no shock. What is surprising is that someone was actually successfully evicted there; IIRC “squatters law” kicks in after 30 minutes of standing in the driveway. j/k

    • They probably checked voter registration on him. He’s a gun owner so he probably popped on a Calguns forum search and an R check.

      • Yup, all those new hires at CA DOJ paid for with the redirected budget money from DROS fees… finally fixed the 40% false positive errirs, after a year, that would have taken an outsourced IT team in Hyderabsd a week for ATT customer service to do…

        Now they need some reason to make joe citizen look dangerous, given how POTUS prettiest state AG is looking STOOPId on Peruta, post Palmer….

        Look there a squirreel….with a gun…
        StateRunMedia producers and fresh interns from communications majors in every UC school rush to get the Talking Points Memo…

        SHOOT!

  9. I take it the guy with the brain was off that day? They couldn’t even find a neighbors dog to shoot?
    Or maybe an angry looking squirrel? How did they determine the house was empty without some flash bangs or tear gas?

    • Hey, at least they are training to actually do something rather than pussy out and wait outside for swat to arrive.
      When they say cops are second response, it couldn’t be any closer to the truth.

  12. Yep, our county ERT spent five hours at an empty house. They ignored all the neighbors who said the guy left out the back on a bicycle just as the bearcat was rolling down the street.

    • Your post put my entire household to howling! Thanks, more than words can express!!!!

      • 100% true story. You have to justify the grants that pay for the bearcat. What better way to show force when you know the outcome will not result in any damage or injury. You can let the news people a little closer than normal.

        I’ve got something I’m working on, that I hope TTAG will publish. It’s everything I’ve learned about SWAT in my 15 years in LE.

  15. I think we’re looking at this the wrong way. Instead of shooting dogs or violating peoples rights, a bunch of police employees got to put on all their cool-guy neighborhood ninja gear and play stakeout with an empty house. They get their fill of excitement and feeling needed, we get 6 hours without their bullshit power tripping or harassment.

  18. Somebody hand the “derp derp, derpy, duh hurr hurr” award to these legendary officers. Truly well deserved.

  19. The standoff of the empty home would have ended sooner if these SWAT guys were wearing ghillie suits.

  20. Hopefully someone in Hollywood was watching, this will make a great comedy skit in a future movie

  21. I would like to know if the picture of that soldier was taken in Iraq or Afghanistan. Oh never mind, it was just a few counties away from mine and it was a Special Weapons Assault Team member not a soldier.

  22. Oh, and be sure to blur out the face of the public servant so that we don’t know who is on the payroll.

  23. “they found suspicious notes indicating there were explosives inside the home”

    LMAO, that’s brilliant :). They deserved it. I mean, no one except you is supposed to be in your house anyway. So if the police break into my house, who are the notes going to be for??? Myself, of course! Not like there’s anyone else there!

    I think everyone should post random notes like that in their houses. Just kind of as decoration, you know: “Don’t open Fridge! Bomb inside!” 🙂

    • If they’re stupid enough to get their panties in a bunch over some signs that weren’t meant for them: Not my problem!

    • “Don’t open fridge, Bomb inside”
      No No, the donuts are in the cupboard! That’s where they’ll look.

    • SWAT team members can read? I thought they only knew how to “accidentally” shoot children when they were aiming for the family border collie? If they can read then why don’t they follow the rule of know your target and what’s behind it?

  24. Hey in my opinion, this is a story with a happy ending. No injuries, no dogs shot, over time for the local LEOs, and the TV guys had a story for the evening news.

  25. Gotta spend our budget before the end of the fiscal year, or we can’t buy that new MRAP.

  27. I wonder if there were bombs in the house before or after they found the guns. Party at the sheriff’s gun range this weekend anyone?

    He probably had some cold war stuff hanging on the wall. Errmahgerd! Biohazard and fallout shelter signs! He’s got a nuke in the the basement!

  28. There is no legal requirement, per se, that any guns (other than “assault weapons”) be registered in California. Any longguns bought before Jan 1 2014 and any handguns brought from out of state before 1998, and any handguns bought private party before 1991 would not be registered. You could voluntarily register them, but there is no reason to unless you plan on carrying a handgun without a license (if registered the penalty is less, a misdemeanor)

    Add to that the statute of limitations is 3 years in the few cases that require a person to register (namely interfamilial transactions, which are exempt from going through a background check/FFL and new residents after 1998 wrt handguns, after 2014 with longguns). So if they are not “registered” that itself is not a crime. I would think, as well, a good lawyer could get the confiscation ruled illegal.

  32. Well, they got their moneys worth on the matching camo…I could hardly make those guys out on the roof. Do they have different shades for different roofs, do you think? Maybe thats why they need those big trucks, for the changing rooms?

  33. BTW, this thought occurred to me after a couple hours of time, driving back and forth across the state today:

    This type of episode shows just how easy it would be to suck a SWAT team into a fire sack.

    Choose the right address in the right neighborhood, the right time of day to put the sun at their disadvantage, a dozen men who actually know how to shoot a high powered rifle, have them in place at other addresses or in cover surrounding the target zone before the SWAT team arrives… have some woman make a hysteric phone call and it becomes a shooting gallery that the SWAT team could not escape.

    After the SWAT team is sucked in with all their toys and “operator as f*(&” nonsense, what’s the PD going to do for an encore?

    Just a thought that there might be a good reason above and beyond merely avoid humiliation on the ‘net to do some due diligence before just storming into these situations like a bunch of stylin’ ninjas.

    • There ya go with the bitterly clinging to common sense thing again.
      What are you, one of those tea party domestic terrorists!

      said with my best Ole and Lena accent, ya sure you betcha!

  35. We had a situation like this earlier this year in Eureka CA. Messy divorce. Wife shows up to try to take possession of the house, finds the ex has changed the locks. So she calls the police and tells them that hubby’s locked himself inside and yes officer he owns guns. They show up, get no answer, see an upstairs window shade move (spoiler alert: family pet), lock down the neighborhood and surround the place. For twenty minutes. Until someone who knows him tries his cell to ask him why his house is surrounded by SWAT. He was across town at the time. He had to meet with officers half a mile away to convince them he wasn’t home. (Alternate version: He was home when she showed up, but snuck out the back when she called the cops, gone before they arrived.) Still, the local news featured a live “standoff” with an empty house.

  36. What the note really said was “Yo, I hope you enjoy this place as much as I did, it’s da bomb!”

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