Check out this story! I get a knock on my door by two policeman, they ask me if I own a 94 RX7 in garage #28 (apartments). "sure do." You need to follow us. I look outside and see a fire engine and 4 cop cars in front on my garage. ?!? what the hell could this be all about. Apparently my turbo timer (Blitz DTT-DC) decided not to shut off my car after 3 minutes (hasn't been a problem since I installed it 9 months ago) and it'd been running for an hour or so. Neighbors walked by and assumed there was someone inside trying to commit suicide and call the cops. 10 minutes later everyone shows up and spends a few minutes trying to track down the owner of the garage (my apartment is right in front of it) with "no luck" so they bust down my door with hatchets (scratching the HELL out of my bumper), then try to pry my UNLOCKED door open because they can't find the door handles (they're not THAT hard to find), then pop my hood and start pulling fuses. They happen to miss the 120A main fuse and decide to cut my battery cables. They whole time walking by scratching the car to hell with their equipment.

I don't know about you guys, but it just doesn't sound right. I can understand them opening the garage door (though they never tried to contact the manager and see who's it was), but after the door is open and they see no one's inside, wouldn't it be prudent to leave the car alone and find the owner. I'm obviously home if the car is in the garage. There was a toolset sitting next to the car, use a socket wrench on the battery lead, not a pair of lops. Good god man, it just doesn't seem right. I've had suggestions as to put together a suit against the city, and I've got statements from the manager and mainanence guy.. Does this seem like a suit against the city, an insurance deal (comprehensive, trying to get the deductable waived), or just an unfortunate event that I have to pay for? I don't think I signed up for "Fireman Break into Your Garage and Tear Up Your Car insurance"..

 

HOLY CRAP!!! That sucks!!

Isn't the city liable for it? Kinda like if the police break down your door mistakenly - they have to fix it. I don't know if I'd file suite, but I'd try to get it taken care of by the city.... If they don't, then it might be worth looking into.

Not only that, but why the eff did they cut the battery cables??? Were they not able to get into the car or shine flahslight in there to see no one was inside???

 

dude, i'd have cursed out those cops so bad they wouldn't be able to look me straight in the eyes. you talk to the chief of police and tell him that he is going to hear from you every single day until you have a written agreement that he will pay for everything that was damaged and get it looking *exactly* like it did before, as well as payment for damages for not being able to drive your car because it's getting worked on, or a loaner police cruiser would work......with working "pull the hell over" lights

 

That's the weird part, they walked all around it, even pulled out my insurance and registration out of the glove box. They managed to even scratch the inside of the window with tinting! I don't believe they had ANY reason to shut that car off after opening the garage, worse yet is because my garage was left open (not like I can put Renold's Wrap over the damn thing to keep people out) I had my M2 medium IC and intake stolen. I tried to bring in as much stuff from the garage as I could for that very reason, but damn.. I'd just gotten that stuff! I don't even to know where to begin..though my friend is the captain of the fire dept in the neighboring city..that's a start!

 

I'm a police officer and this is almost unbelieveable to the point of being believeable. I mean who could make up something like that. If the car was running as reported by neighbors, they should have asked the neighbor where you live first. If they believed you were in the garage then I understand them entering. The garage was probably full of CO and maybe smoke so someone should have opened the main door from the inside while someone else looked inside the car with a flashlight. Both police and firemen carry flash lights. Are you windows tinted out so dark that a person cannot see in? Breaking into the car door is totally stupid. If they could not find the handle how could they assume it was even locked? Seems like they got stupid and over zelous at that point. If no one was in the car then there was no need to open the hood or cut the cables or do anything.

As a police officer I often take a point of view that some people don't understand.
In this case I think the police and fire department may have initially acted in good faith but after they got into the garage then they started messing up from there on. Yes, I would expect the city to pay for the damages. If they didn't, I'd sue and consider going to the press.

I'm really disgusted with this. I see a lot of times when volunteer firemen just tear the hell out of peoples property. I'm not saying they are all bad but it does happen.

At least they didn't cut the top off the car or rip the door off with the jaws of life.

Sorry for you loss.

Jerry Nuss

 

As a police officer yourself, would you know who I'd need to talk to about this? With the stolen goods, I'm not sure if that'd be considered the city's fault, the apartment complexes for not putting up another garage door, or my own for not taking EVERYTHING out of my garage after the incident. The garage door was the only enterence into the garage, and they're all individual garages so I do understand them opening the door. Though you're right, the neighbor should have gone around and checked who's garage it was before calling anyone. I've only got a 50% tint on the front windows, I'm sure it's borderline illegal, you can still see inside with a flashlight. Any advice would be MOST appreciated..

 

holy defacing of property batman, I'm sure they can bring the tint up if you file a suit. Good luck with this and I say they give you money cash for damages, stolen losses, new paint or touch up until it looks new, and a new garage door

 

now that sucks! i hope you get this worked out the way you want it. but at least you know that your neighbors like you and don't want you dead...i guess that could be a good thing. man that REALLY SUCKS! sorry man!

 

If I were you I wouldn't rest until I received full payment for repairs AND an official apology from both the city and who ever it was that made the decisions to make such foolish mistakes. As Jerry suggested contact the media regarding this. That is where the true power to persuade is. You just need to wait for a slow news day... which might not be that easy...

Good luck with it,

 

Even if you have tint, couldn't they have looked through the windshield? Is your windshield tinted?

 

The tint isn't as bad as people may be thinking, it was the lowest tint I could get. I just wanted to keep the glare out. They could have looked through the windshield (NOT tinted) or even open the doors (novel idea.) I'm still trying to figure out what could have been going through their minds after open the door. Were they disappointed that there was no one to save, so they wanted some action? I dunno...I so mad it just makes my head hurt thinking about it..

 

How the hell did they get to your battery without using the hood latch???? Was your hood already popped???? I tell ya what I would do is get a video camera and go out to the garage and look into the car with it thru the tint if you can, that way you can prove in court that you can view the inside thru the tint. The fact that they couldnt find the door handles tells me that they were too worked up and not thinking straight.

I would definatly talk to an attorney if they dont make this right. There is NO reason why you should be out any $ over this. Your IC and intake should be covered under renters insurance if you have it.

WOW its sooooo crazy!!!!!

Later,

 

....just when you thought the world couldn't get any crazier.....

...sorry...

 

Well that doesn't sound very pleasing. I know that if that had happened to me I would be sueing them as fast as I could to get money back from the damages and the fact that it is their fault that your stuff got stolen from the damaged door.

I was in fire fighter training for a while (stopped cause it wasn't for me) and they say that when it comes to property you have to take all other measures before taking the move to DAMAGE things or break the doors down.

 

Sorry about ur misfortune!


WOW its a rough crowd in here! Some ppl seem to be running naked w/ scissors over this even! One dude had the local PD condemned..... even w/ the thread title reading FIREMAN breaking into my FD. Some of you most certainly show ur immaturity thru ur posts.

My advice to you is this.
Contact the FD and ask for their PR person before doin anythng else. (also giving ur hook a call wld help matters) And explain everythng to him/her. That may be all you need to do. If not.

Then contact the city i.e. mayor, counselperson whoever.
And explain the whole story again, also advise them the FD was contacted and chose to do nothing thus far. This time add if you dont receive a response/payment/whatever........that your attorney will be contacting them shortly for the obvious damage AND any other expenses incurred to pursue this in litigation. Also throw in (at the end), the local paper/media WILL be contacted about this matter. Im a tax payer, law abidding citizen (assuming u r ) and registered VOTER and you will do ur best to see it doesnt happen to another person any time soon.


As for they're actions.......obviously they went overboard. I notice alot of ppl making innuendos and speculating on what occurred but noone asked some common sense questions.
Were there any apartments above the garage? (which wld possibly explain why they felt it was necessary to turn off the car)
Was it so smoky in there that it made it impossible or too difficult to see in the car regardless of which window?

W/out the answers to atleast those 2 questions its difficult to see if these ppl made a lil mistake or a complete assanine one.

Gdluck!

 

No apartments above, and no smoke. The windows tinting is not the issue, you can see through it at night. The opened the hood after getting inside the vehicle (suprised they didn't pry it open as well), then proceeded to cut the battery cable. The police report shows that I'm the victim, and has estimates as to the damage (only $200-$300 for the paint..yeah right) as long as it DOES state that I was the victim. I've got a call into the Fire Chief as we speak..I'll update..

 

Dont act like Fireman dont kick down unlocked doors all the time. I used to be one and the REDNECK guys VOL. at them are not as bright as they are ambitious about using thier Axe. These guys need to respect property. They shield thier pointless destruction on trying to help. It was obvious by anyone with a brain once the garage was opened that there was no one in the car. At that point they could have found out whos car it was from the tags. The cops could have got the address and knocked on the correct door instead of stoving up his car. a flash light through the windshield would show no one was in the car. At that point the emergency is over. Over Zelous firemen who like to cave **** in need to know the right and wrong time to do it. The garage was open. The car door was open. The Fireman are idiots in this case. They need some diciplinary action and the guy with the Car gets resitution. Its that simple. They fucked up.

 

Oh my goodness.... all of a sudden I have such little faith for our city workers. Fireman should only have to use ONE tool and that's it: the flashlight. Once they realize that there's nobody in the car, then that's it: Emergency OVER. Sheesh... I warm up my car all the time in my garage, if my neighbors did that to me, I'd go choke someone. My car smokes a little bit on startup because the weather in Seattle is so cold. Fortunately I don't really have tinted windows so you can easily look in there and find out there's nobody in the car. In any case, I'd probably contact the chief of the FD and PD and then take it from there. If that doesn't work, then work your way higher up. After all is said and done, I'd probably write a letter or just talk to your neighbors about what they did. Yes, they're nice and I'm sure you're appreciative for their concern, but they need to acertain the situation before jumping to some crazy conclusion. *suicide?!*

Well, good luck!

Peace,
AJ ^_^

 

How in the fuc$ could they not find the door handles? You would have to have an i.q. of like 1 not to be able to find something related to opening the car. I know the handles aren't on the body panel for the door, but how could they miss the big black piece with a keyhole in it? That's the biggest load of poo I've ever heard. All firemen and policemen should have to pass an i.q. test as well in order to become that profession. People with eggplant intelligence must be restricted from becoming anything at all.

 

Yea, I thought of the smoke thing at first but then remembered that the garage door was bashed down so smoke shouldnt be a problem.

What a crazy story, I want to see updates and follow this. Its very intriging





Later,
STEPHEN

 

Whoa!....but if they had saved a life....maybe not so dumb.

Definitely more adrenaline than brains at work there.

 

I'm a firefighter and an FD owner. I consider part of my job property conservation. Unless there were extenuating circumstances, I would not have acted in the same manner.

If I had responded to such an incident, first I would have considered if an emergency existed.

If there was no threat to life or property I would then try to locate the owner. If the owner could not be located and not knowing why a vehicle unattended without a key in the ignition was running I may consider that there may have been some malfunction (I experienced a fire where the starting circuit of a Mack truck shorted, the truck started then pushed into a second truck, and eventuallly started a sizeable fire $250k damage). I may then break into the vehicle (glass is probably the easiest and least expensive to repair) Open the hood, disconnect or maybe even cut the battery cables before locating a main fuse. (With the hundreds or maybe thousands of different configurations of models and model year of vehicles on the roads it is not reasonable to expect firefighters to be able to locate the main fuse, if one exists on all cars.)

In my experience the time of day or night may have had an effect on the outcome (was the building manager available? we have one in town who is habitually drunk and slow to respond, if he responds).

When a response is not made in a reasonable time frame by an owner and/or occupant and/or manager, I'll do what I have to do to return companys to service, there is still an issue of public safety.

It may be firefighters used poor methods and or there is more to this story.

I know my community will honor a moral claim if it feels a responsibility for damages. I suggest you contact your local community representative about your incident.

 

By no means is this thread ment to make people lose respect for fireman and/or police officers, mearly here to tell a (my) story. There's not too much hidden to this story from what's been told, no smoke, no fire, no blood coming from underneath the door... Officers arrived around 9:30p on Sunday, (meaning my car was only running for 30 minutes) and fire crew arriving around 9:45p. I have no complaints as to the garage door being forced open, there was enough evidence to show that someone may be inside (how many people ACTUALLY know about turbo timers?! Not many..) The bumper being damaged was an unfortunate casualty of fire crew with good intensions. After the door was open is a whole new ball game. Disregard the tint on the windows, it's so light that I can take a video camera at night and shoot trees through BOTH windows. Regardless, both doors were open. They used the hood latch to open the hood (thank God!) and then tried to find a means to turn the vehicle off. They removed five or six fuses before cutting the battery cable. That's not a MAJOR fix, but I don't understand the logic behind it. The fuse box is labeled, and shows where the 120a main fuse is, and there was not such an emergency to warrant having to cut BOTH battery cables (I may have left that out from earlier posts.) Also, in trying to remove the garage door (what was left) from the guide rails, a SINGLE fireman (as in one fireman, not unmarried) tried to pull it down causing the whole mess to fall on top of the car. Not too bad, caused a minor star-type crack in the rear window and a few chips.

I believe that the whole situation is crazy, and the fire crew did what they thought was prudent at the time. I also believe that they used poor judgement in turning off the car without trying to contact me. They found me by my registration, so why couldn't they have come and got me to turn it off? I have a copy of the police report, and it states that I AM the victim, and there are appoximate figures as to the damage of the vehicle (though they are wrong, it still shows fault.) I will be talking to either the police or fire chief in the next few days as I prepare my written evidence. As for the stolen items from the garage I'm lost. These are items that normally stay in a garage (being they're covered in grease and such) and without a garage door I can't possible be expected to move everything into my apartment until the new door is hung. I figure the apartment complex MAY be liable (they're filling a insurance claim for the door anyways, maybe I'll be able to ride on it..), or I'm just out of luck. I don't think that quite falls on the city at that point. These are fairly expensive apartments ($1000/mo for a 1br/1bth) and they think highly of their residents, so we'll see how that goes. I'll keep the thread updated as I get information. Any further advice or just your thoughts would be appeciated..

 

Just curious, do you have receipts/cancelled checks or some proof of what you paid for the stolen parts? That would help you out on that one.

 

Just so you know that the 50% tint you have is illegal and in CA as of last July it is not a fix it ticket anymore. If you need your window tinted again let me know and I can hook you up at the place I used to work at.