A Florida woman used her doorbell camera to stop police officers from breaking into her house to serve her an eviction notice.
Jennifer Michele was away at her mother’s house last Thursday when police officers arrived at her doorstep.
“Whenever somebody rings the doorbell, you actually get a notification,” Ms Michele said, according to local news reports.
Through her doorbell camera, she saw Pasco County deputies trying to break into her house along with a locksmith who was drilling a hole in her lock.
“As soon as I said my name to the police officers, they realised that they were at the wrong house,” she said. The notice was meant for a neighbouring home.
“We do apologise,” a deputy said on the video. “We have the wrong house. It’s the next-door neighbour’s. What we’re going to do, we’re going to have to repair the lock.”
Ms Michele said that she ran back to her house to speak to the police officers.
“One of the first things I asked them was who was responsible for reading the numbers on the house,” she said. “The police officer told me that they all are.”
Ms Michele said the simple mistake by the deputies could have cost her family everything.
“This is what made me angry at that moment… if I didn’t catch it on my Ring, then I would have got home from my mom’s doctor’s appointment, I would have got home from lunch, and my key wouldn’t go in and I would have no idea why.”
She later posted the video of the incident captured on her doorbell camera on TikTok, which has subsequently got over five million views.
“Like, I don’t have any hatred toward anybody,” Ms Michele said. “I get that it was a mistake, mistakes happen. It was a big mistake to make.”
The incident is being investigated by the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.
Source: Independent
