Mr. Tuttle? Mr. Buttle? Close enough...
"We hear this bam, bam, bam at our back door!" said David Carnell.
That's how he says the most terrifying night of his life began, with a stranger banging at his door.
"I said who is it? He says I'm here for Lawrence Carnell. I say there's no Lawrence Carnell, I'm David Carnell, you've got the wrong house! What are you doing at my back door? He says open the door or I'm gonna kick it in!"
Carnell says he grabbed his gun and aimed it through the glass doors at the man outside.
"I saw my laser shine through, and all of a sudden I looked down and he's shining his laser back at me, at my chest. I jumped back, and then Jenny comes running down the hall."
"All of a sudden, a guy comes running up to me and says "Are you Lawrence Carnell?" I said I'm David Carnell, I told you who I was. Why are you at my back door at three in the morning? He says "We are bounty hunters, we have the right to believe you are harboring a fugitive.""
And here's the kicker: Carnell says the two men with the Tri-State Fugitive Apprehension Team even got the name of the fugitive wrong. The warrant lists someone named Lawrence Butler, not Lawrence Carnell; and he's wanted on a misdemeanor charge.
"Ultimately bounty hunters have more power than law enforcement," said Sikeston Chief Drew Juden. "It's a big concern for us."
Via
Fark.
I live in this area, about ten minutes from Sikeston. The bounty hunters are out of control here. Two years ago one shot and killed a boy who tried to simply run away in the parking lot of his apartment.
ReplyDeleteThe boy was wanted on some oustanding warrant, I think something like minor posession, he was not a "real" criminal, but the bounty hunters are!
What's WORSE some people on local fora mentioned that the kids deserved to be shot because he had a photoshopped picture of himself on My Space with stacks on money all around him.
I had a somewhat similar experience, but it wasn't a bounty hunter, it was a pair of repo men. I used to live in an apartment complex and I was sitting at home at about six o'clock in the evening when I heard someone banging on my door. I decided to be cautious and without opening the door I asked who it was. A voice asked for a "LaToya." I said there was no such person there. He told me I was lying and demanded that I open the door. I looked outside the window and saw another man sitting in a pickup truck, blocking the car that was parked in front of my apartment. I kept telling them that my name wasn't LaToya and that they had the wrong apartment. He asked what kind of car I drove, and I told him. The man became increasingly irate and told me that he was going to kick the door down. Eventually, after about an hour of knocking on doors and harassing all of the residents in my building, they found the person they were looking for and repossessed her car, which just happened to be parked in front of my apartment.
ReplyDeleteBetween repo men, bill collectors, telemarketers, bounty hunters, and so forth, I don't really feel free, even in my own house. And they are always looking for someone whose name isn't even close to mine, usually someone of the opposite gender.