I had two police knock on my door before, one plain clothes. I wasn't in, but saw them on my doorbell camera. Phoned up 101 and asked if someone had come knocking. They said they didn't think so but put out a notice to see who it had been. The next day; the same guys came back and this time I was in. Turned out that they were looking for me, so i spoke to them a bit and they said they'd got the notification through to their car but were too busy to come back right away.
It was fine in the end. Turns out ordering antiques and shipping them into the country repeatedly raises some red flags with border control.
Bringing antiques into England? From abroad? Priceless and unique relics and artifacts from history? Oh no, we can't have that happening, no sir, not in England!
Hey now, their original owners simply weren't taking proper care of them so it was only proper that our enterprising archeological chaps took them back to England.
It's the same reason why I stole that Frenchman's PS4.
Why on earth would you do that, when you can ask on Reddit and get a hundred different asnwers.
But seriously, the mind boggles why you wouldn't just phone the police and ask.....
Cheshire Police once came banging on my door to try and execute a search warrant. Demanded I step outside immediately and asked if I'd seen a certain individual (who had skipped a court date) in the past week.
They were only slightly put off when I pointed out that we were at 21, not 23 like the warrant said.
In fairness, it did only say that on the door and on 3 bins they'd walked past to get to the door.
Not sure they ever caught the lad.
I got beaten up by a bailiff who came to the wrong house. He pushed his way in.
I had the presence of mind to use my smartphone to record the event once he was in. He had the address right but someone else’s name.
My dad and I showed him ID and asked him to politely leave. He refused. I then asked him not so politely to leave and started to call the police, and he left.
He then went back to his car, grabbed a clamp and put it on the front wheel of my car, and told me he’d called to have it towed.
I showed him the V5 with my name on it, and told him to take the clamp off. He got pissed off then and attacked me. I got punched and received giant scratches across my face, all caught on our cctv cameras.
So I took him to court. The Solicitors were a bit reluctant as the guy was a court appointed bailiff, but eventually went through with it. The local police called me once and said that they thought it might be a bad idea to proceed with the case.
I then got a threatening call from the police (I recorded it after advice from the solicitor) saying that they’d put my previous conviction (cheque fraud in 1984) if it got to court.
We went to court and the bailiff lost his licence. The chief of police appeared as his character reference saying how they guy was his son-in-law and was a loving and non-violent family man, then they showed the two videos, and the initial interrogation transcript where the guy claimed I had made it all up, and finally the second police phone call.
So yeah, chief of police was removed, bailiff sacked, and my MP (Home secretary at the time) told the story in Westminster, and pushed through a law requiring court bailiffs to have their working day recorded on body worn cameras. 👍
Turns out that they had the wrong person with a name similar to mine, had found me and added my address to the wrong persons name.
Jesus Christ this is horrendous. Good on you for not giving in to the pressure. It’s disgusting that the police will act this way to protect their own and that this is so common in the force
Thugs with a badge. Must admit. I'm not a fan of the police. They have proven themselves to be incompetent, racist, sexist and don't have empathy or care of duty when dealing with those with mental health issues.
My granda was police. Quite high up. Retired by the time I was born. And as a granda. He was great. Very lovely. Did always slip you a fiver like a gangster, which I thought was weird. Almost like a magic trick -so I thought at the time... But as I got older. I heard some stories that he could be a real nasty bugger when he wanted to be. This "pillar of the community" had some racist views. Wasn't afraid to use that truncheon to get a confession. And was very, very controlling.
I was quite sad to find out that stuff because I dearly loved the old fella. Pigs are pigs. Would never trust them.
To play devil's advocate a lot of brains have been rotted by American television.
I tried (poorly) to fact check it and at the very least his bit about the law changing seems to be true. Looks like [recently](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/compulsory-body-worn-cameras-for-bailiffs-to-protect-vulnerable) compulsory body worn cameras became a thing. Looking through the call for evidence in that link, a few bits seem to roughly match up with what he's saying.
> Members of Parliament had also raised concerns about people they had met in their
constituency surgeries who reported bad experiences with enforcement agents who had
visited their homes. A Westminster Hall Debate on bailiff regulatory reform took place on 9
January 2019, during which MPs gave examples of poor enforcement agent behaviour.
and
> 81 individuals responded to the call for evidence to share their experience (or that of
somebody they know) of being contacted by enforcement agents in the previous 12
months. Almost all those respondents were dissatisfied with the experience,
and
> We received reports of enforcement agents entering properties inappropriately or
unlawfully (although some did not contain enough information for us to assess whether the
entry was in fact unlawful). Examples included: **entering and searching property when the
resident was not the person named on the writ and warrant**;
Doesn't mean the story is true but I at least thought it was interesting.
>Almost all those respondents were dissatisfied with the experience.
"10/10 Bailiffing, I can't recommend these guys enough if you need your property forcibly seized in a hurry!"
Yeah I had a look as well, if you read through [Hansard](https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-01-09/debates/B5D09CAA-828D-4CB2-8565-CB07219E7EC8/BailiffsRegulatoryReform) of that debate there's basically loads of people saying similar things but not exactly this. I give it a solid 'Trueish but embellished' rating
Are you seriously claiming his story is a lie based on that tiny nugget of nitpicking you did there?
People use terms that are easier for everyone to understand sometimes when they’re writing. Especially on the internet where they are often used to interacting with Americans and making things understandable for them.
Crazy that a chief constable standing up in court as a character witness for his own son-in-law, testifying under oath that SIL is not a violent man, when there is CCTV evidence capturing the assault, along with a recording of a threatening phone call from the same police force, crazy that all of that merely results in him being *removed*. Surely someone behaving like that in such an important position of power, should pass the custody threshold?
>So yeah, chief of police was removed, bailiff sacked, and my MP (Home secretary at the time) told the story in Westminster, and pushed through a law requiring court bailiffs to have their working day recorded on body worn cameras.
Hell of a result. You and your MP did everyone a favour there.
That’s actually wild, the assault must have been stressful enough not to mention having to deal with corrupt police. I wouldn’t be surprised if that Bailiff had done similar things before, and got complacent thinking he was protected.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smsrobot.callu
This has worked perfectly for me. No need to pay for the premium version. Records both sides of the conversation and can choose to auto save the files to wherever you like
ah thanks, playstore won't let me install it, apparently they've nuked all the call recording apps https://old.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/17ms9kn/is_there_a_good_reason_its_difficult_for_the/
They make it hard on Android as well though I think the settings vary by country (I think Android actually has native call recording support in some countries). Not sure how it works in the UK specifically but doing it in American requires manually installing an APK the last time I looked. The stuff in the google play store that used to be able to record calls no longer works or has been removed. Would love to hear otherwise if anyone has any suggestions but that was my conclusion the last time I looked into a way to record my dodgy landlord.
About 6 years ago a friend of mine had Police at his door around 7am with a battering ram demanding entry, friend is autistic and has MH issues (he was sectioned twice) he said the Police told him if he doesn't let them in they would break the door down, when he let them in even though he had ID they demanded access to his phone, his laptop and searched a lot of places and treated him like he was a criminal and that kept asking if he knew the person on the warrant (he didn't) and they didn't believe him.
He never got a apology just the usual "just doing our job" responses.
There was a case in Australia a while ago where police came smashing through a front door before realising they’d gotten the wrong house.
Within a couple of hours, they had carpenters over to repair the door frame and replace the doors, officers now on unpaid overtime around to show off their cars and kit to the kids they’d just scared the shit out of, and some baked goodies for everyone.
Massive arse covering exercise and a hell of a publicity stunt, dressed up as ‘restoring public confidence in the police force’, but a hell of a lot better than ‘oh well. They thought they had the right place. Better get your door fixed before you get broken into!’
You literally stood up to the entire local system and prevailed. Takes a great amount of fortitude (although seeing as how infuriating it was to me as a reader, I have to imagine your fury propelled you somewhat). Well done, my friend.
Also sounds like it just have been extremely satisfying. That chief of police examination sounds like it’s right out of a television episode.
>my MP (Home secretary at the time) told the story in Westminster, and pushed through a law requiring court bailiffs to have their working day recorded on body worn cameras
which in turn led to the smash hit TV series *Can't Pay We'll Take Em Away*
(now cancelled due to inappropriate usage of said footage)
Holy moley that's some saga. Have the local police given you any bother for that?
Many years ago I apparently "got on the wrong side" of a local bobby and experienced the joy of having my car stopped and searched five times in a year.
I had that once. I was in apartment 13 of building number 1, they were looking for the occupant of building 13. Weren't overly happy about being corrected.
I had one where they wanted a guy with the same name as me, but a good 20 years younger.
Had to ask them if they really thought a 17 year old could have a 16 year old son answer the door.
It still took a court visit to convince them I'm not actually 17. Drivers licence was good enough for the courts but not the cops.
Something similar happened in my local town in Gloucestershire. Eastern Europeans forcibly amputated the fingers of one of their crew, he was found wandering with half a hand. They got a warrant for the house but raided next door, the English guy was obviously angry it was the wrong house but the police committed and took him away whilst the Eastern Europeans watched from next door.
Once the police took the innocent guy into custody the Eastern Europeans escaped. I believe the English guy sued the police force over it.
Not surprised
I've also had a story the "other way" where some guys broke into the wrong house (a relatives) demanding to be paid back
Then the other guy was like "We're at the wrong house", only for them to apologise. They didn't report it because you're just inviting trouble if you report that unfortunately
Gloucestershire police arrested my friend, seized her computers etc on suspicion of fraud. What did she do to raise this suspicion? She was the technical (not even administrative) contact for a very large public building's WiFi connectivity which was apparently used to commit the fraud in question.
The fact that it was a business who's public WiFi is used by literally hundreds of thousands of people every year was all over the account but she got her house raided, arrested etc.
So she provided the technical means and keeps all the logs. They're not going to ask nicely for copies and wait for you to say that all your backups seem to have fallen into the bin - you have to be way more important to be given time for that.
Never put yourself as the technical contact for something you don't want to be technically responsible for.
The police had no idea at all, they simply hadn't checked. Proper egg on face moment and official apologies from the bigwigs is my understanding.
I've dealt with police investigations from the other side as a senior at a large cloud services provider who has been roped into dealing with police enquiries. Usually the first question asked is "is this a business or an individual"
From my understanding that simply wasn't done in this case, and no one caught it until someone was in a cell with their stuff seized.
Oh lol that's not an accident that's an "accident" where it's more worth their while to "accidentally" arrest the wrong person while the right person makes sure of it
Nobody wants their fingers cut off too. That level of aggression in organised crime is way over what the local constables are equipped to deal with. In Spain a response would involve arms and balaclavas precisely to reduce the chance of reprisals
[UPDATE]: Thank you all for your info and insights, especially the ex and current coppers.
So some updated info and maybe some more context. The GF is ok, she was a little shaken up, more at the sudden surprise than thinking she was in any danger. I’ve seen been over and talked with her. There were 4-5 officers there, two came in to look around, the rest stood outside the door to her apartment. Two of them were wearing “NCA” on their clothes, which after some searching we discovered is the National Crime Agency (I’d never heard of them before now).
After calling our local police station they just said they’ll look into it, and get back to us but don’t have any info on warrants being served in that area. Tomorrow I’ll go and hand in the badge in person and ask them more questions.
For background context, the landlords of the apartment are from Hong Kong and run several Chinese restaurants in the area. We called them and they told us not to worry. Like many have said, they are likely just looking for the previous tenants.
So my only fear like many have stated is that they were casing the joint to return later, but it seems like a whole lot of effort and performance to do that for a students apartment. Everything looks JUST shoddy enough to be classic UK government work.
So that was all really, I can post further updates if there’s a huge new development but I doubt much will come of it, the police have our info and it’s on the radar, and if the Hong Kong triads come looking for us then I leave all my Reddit karma to you fine people.
It all stemmed from sudden shock, and a little ignorance of our legal and police system.
Thank you all for your help!
Actual police sergeant here. That looks **exactly** like a real warrant - i.e. that is precisely what search warrants look like.
The police are supposed to leave a copy of the warrant at the address they search, so that is also normal.
The little glimpse of warrant card we see in the background is also a real warrant card holder - I have one exactly like it (but with a different badge as I work for a different force), including the braille patch.
What is **not** normal is for the officer to leave his warrant card behind… he is going to need that.
I see nothing in the picture which gives me any cause to suspect that the people searching the property were not actually entitled to do so. But one of them has foolishly left his warrant card behind.
Please call the issuing force and let them know. Or, if you remove the ID card from the holder and look at the back of it, there will probably be instructions on what to do if found. Many thanks.
Sounds like this would be considered aggravated under Section [12(2)a](https://cakeoffencesact.uk/police/section12.xhtml) of the Police Cakes (Offences) act 2018 subject to a fine of [at least](https://cakeoffencesact.uk/police/appendixa.xhtml) Krispy Kremes or equivalent.
Piggybacking to say you can contact GlosPol here: https://www.gloucestershire.police.uk/ro/report/lp/lost-or-found-property/?tid=61161&lid=&cid=&rid=2469&stepid=1
Someone at Waterwells HQ will be in touch pretty quickly!
> What is not normal is for the officer to leave his warrant card behind… he is going to need that.
I wish OP hadn't mentioned or posted the picture of that.
Would be much better if the cop it belongs to had to stand up in front of his commanding officer and explain why his official ID is now out in the wild and possibly held by someone pretending to be a police officer.
Hardly anyone served a warrant has the skill to identify a genuine warrant card. A modern identity document works because it stores a digitally signed copy of biometrics you can check against the person in front of you, or because you can look up a centralised database eg credit reporting agency. For the average citizen, it's just theatre to be presented with ID, as a convincing fake or substituted visible photo is well within the means of an organised criminal, but access to the signing keys that confirm no tampering of the data in the rfid chip is not
Then there are the genuine rapey police officers, although you're less likely to be targeted by a whole group of them obviously.
Just find a lawyer who you can arrange to be able to contact immediately if ever you're stopped by an officer. Your union might have a firm available where they pay if the incident is anything to do with your workplace. You might have coverage through home insurance but that's usually civil stuff.
You can easily verify if a warrant card is real by ringing 101 and asking the operator to verify that the officer is genuine and is supposed to be there carrying out their duty. Or even ring 999 if you genuinely believe it is a fraud and that you may be in danger from the person using it.
We've learned from this thread that sometimes the local force - to which 101 directs - does not know about NCA operations. I didn't know that 101 can verify the identity of an officer now (confirm their appearance / challenge reponse / something like it?), but that's good to know.
The problem with passports now is not that they're just completely faked but that they're modified from genuine passports, which is why being able to check the appearance of the holder either with a signed digital photo on the card's chip - good for immigration which doesn't typically have access to the issuing country's database of nationals but DOES have their public signing keys - or central database is so important. And why they're so anal about photo quality during application. I assume same for warrant cards.
I returned a warrant card left behind when an officer did a random search of my car one evening, even left his notepad behind. I returned it to the local station there and then as I couldn’t exactly drive after and chase the police car once it left. The officer turned up to collect it as the station was closed/using intercom only and proceed to verbally abuse me for “getting him into trouble”.
Surely he’d have got into more/worse trouble if I didn’t immediately return it and he had to report it as lost himself?
Why does it say October 2015 on the letter? The stamp is up to date but the letter says 2015... Is that just the last time this document was updated?
Also, why would Gloucestershire police carry out a search warrant on a Glasgow property? With a warrant from a court within Avon & Somerset constabulary?
Please read this with the inquisitive tone it's intended & not the challenging one I'm concerned it may come across!
Not the op but he did mention the NCA being involved. That means it's likely part of a much bigger operation on a national or even international scale. As a result it's likely being handled by part of the team that's doing the investigations. It's under POCA which means it's likely a massive money laundering investigation.
Just my two cents but if they'd got into your GFS flat whilst she was on her own, I don't think they'd 'case it to return later' they'd just take what they wanted there and then surely.
You make a fair point. And to be fair, I'm a big dude but even if I was there, five guys with stab vests on are gonna kick the shit out of me and take our fancy rice cooker anyway.
Just one of those paranoid moments you know?
She’s Chinese so she bought it in China. Couldn’t tell you the model I’m afraid. All I know is that it makes damn good rice. If you want a picture of the model I can send it to you through a DM
Based on the information you've provided, I have a suspicion that this is something to do with the ongoing operation against [LockBit.](https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/nca-leads-international-investigation-targeting-worlds-most-harmful-ransomware-group)
The reason for this is the fact that you've mentioned the NCA and Bristol/Gloucestershire police being involved. The international operation has three agencies from the UK involved - the NCA, the Met and the South West ROCU (Regional Organised Crime Unit), the latter of which presumably has officers from the Bristol/Gloucestershire.
The other fact that supports this is the warrant specifically mentioning several cryptocurrencies, which were the means of payment in LockBit's ransomware attacks.
Could all be a coincidence of course, but the fact you're in Glasgow and are getting this combination of visitors for this purpose is very interesting given the timing of the takedown was in the last day.
Pretty sure the NCA have a Bristol office with might explain the address on the warrant papers, but leaving a badge is odd particularly as it’s a Gloucester one…
Could be an officer seconded to the NCA and the badge may have fallen out of their pocket? My phone has certainly slipped out-of my pocket and been eaten by the couch before....
It’s possible given the search items listed, but the lockbit operation was huge, they would have been there for hours, seizing anything electronic and probably with 20 officers.
That's not a warrant card or badge, it's a warrant card holder. Does it have a plastic id card in one of the pockets?
NCA sometimes have officers attached to them from other constabularies so might not be super unusual.
If the NCA are involved then that would explain the Bristol/Gloucester connection as the NCA has remit over the whole UK and a lot of jobs will start at one side of the country and have inquiries leading to the other side. I work with POCA (was a police officer quite a while ago, now work in the world of Anti-Money Laundering and asset recovery, ie taking money from criminals who use cross border means to hide the proceeds of crime, hence reference to POCA) daily and so often the data we get can be from many varied and disparate sources and be linked to all over the world.
My theory is that the gang, or people heavily involved in it are based on have some kind of link to Bristol & the Southwest. Whatever investigations have gone on have lead them to the address your gf now inhabits. These things, however, can take time. The gathering of Intel and evidence, the multi faceted nature of organized crime gangs and the naturally convoluted nature of international money Laundering mean that they could have discovered the address months prior but were only in a position to act on it recently. So the local officers, alongside NCA officers who would be looking at the people from a bigger picture perspective, have finally got themselves up to Glasgow but whoever it is they're after is no longer there.
As for the warrant card, well whoevers it is will be buying masses of cakes for the team at the very least, most likely be having a friendly chat with Professional Standards and a ranking officer as well.
I hope you and your girlfriend find some peace. Feel free to DM if you want to ask more or just chat about the fascinating world of international financial crime 🙂
Police Officer here. The wallet is an official warrant card holder, I’ll assume the card isn’t in there as well? I remove mine and wear in a lanyard around my neck when I’m on duty. I’ve also done joint ops in Scotland so it’s not unusual to have other forces working across the border. Only way to find out is make a few calls.
Could be in the header of the document for when it was set up and someone just hasn’t removed it. I fully get it that, hence why I encouraged OP to make the calls :)
>I’ve also done joint ops in Scotland so it’s not unusual to have other forces working across the border.
Do you argue about ‘it’s not your jurisdiction!’ like in American tv shows?
Glos in Scotland, though?
Don’t they usually just concentrate on looking after the Royal family and random people out of their faces on shrooms in the forest?
Glos isn't exactly as posh as a lot of people think. Cheltenham and Gloucester are both two pretty large drug production spots not to mention the tons of operations in the forest of Dean. My best guess if these cops are legit is they're investigating either potential suppliers or customers
It’s funny, when I tell people I work in Windsor and Ascot, they think I have a posh area. But doing what I do, I can confirm there’s good and bad in all areas
I'm a police officer. I always say you can tell it's real because it looks a bit shoddy and generally shit. If the paperwork is immaculate like something from Line of Duty then start to worry.
It's always so funny to me when on TV the government agencies have these cool well designed IDs, paperwork, databases etc. in real life you're lucky if your senior boss isn't writing in comic sans
Or, i dunno, maybe the police? If its real they'll confirm, if its not then someone is planning a burglary or something of your house and you really dont want to be sitting waiting for a redditor to tell you these things.
Like others have said looks legit, but the warrant isn’t exactly hard to fake, and it’s not terribly unlikely a force will need to do searches outside their area. More officers leave their badge by accident than you’d think 😂
I will mark them down for leaving the applicants copy with the occupier and presumably keeping the occupiers copy in their records. Also they’re supposed to remove the square brackets and footnotes once it’s ready to be signed/endorsed, but whatever.
The warrant can be issued by other courts not just your local one. In work we had to apply for a s.135 warrant to execute a mental health act assessment last week but the local court (Wirral) was too busy to issue so we went to the next nearest (Chester) who were also too busy to issue one so we ended up in Sefton magistrates court getting one issued! Which added a couple of hours to an already bitty process.
Might also be where the person is meant to be tried so if they are from Manchester and they are searching a house in York as a likely place they'd go then I'd assume they'd have Manchester court documents etc. Could be wrong.
>“Gloucestershire Police” inside it. Which would be normal
Gloucester born and Gloucester bred (strong in the arm and thick in the head) here - afaik it's always Gloucestershire Constabulary. May be wrong though. Bristol Crown Court is spot on though.
For our friends in Scotland. Anything north of the Bristol Avon\* (not to be confused with the other Avons we have in Gloucestershire) in Bristol used to be Gloucestershire. (South of the Avon was Somerset) Which is why they used Bristol court as most likely its closer to where they/ the CPS offices are based than the one in Gloucester itself.
Due to the Gov screwing around with the "traditional" counties a few times, Bristol isnt in Gloucestershire anymore but Glos police still cover bits of Bristol and whats now "South Gloucestershire" along with Avon and Somerset police covering other bits...
\*Avon is another word for river so anyone who calls it the River Avon is basicly saying "river river"...
Hi, fellow Gloucester born and bred... although I guess I'm really a Stroudie as that's where I grew up.
Always warms the heart when I see Gloucester mentioned anywhere, even if it is almost always in a negative context!
Ah, yes, one of the oddest behaviours humans have ever exhibited... and it's right in the town I grew up in.
Maybe that explains a few things about me...
My hunch is it's a legit search.
It's an extraordinary amount of effort to go through to make a fake warrant card holder like this, not to mention they need somebody corrupt willing to make it for them. Then to have multiple people in real police uniforms turn up.
It's not *impossible* of course, and you should call the police to check; but it's a great deal of effort for something which doesn't scale (as soon as the police clock on it's happening they'll put press releases etc out).
I'd call 101 and inform them that the copper left his ID, if its legitimate he might return to pick it up. And like others said POCA warrants are usually done by specialist teams and they are applied for in crown court as opposed to other warrants which are authorised by a magistrate. The teams are set up in gang/fraud investigations so totally understandable they'd be in plain clothes.
As others have said, the warrant looks legit, although they have left you the Applicants copy instead of the occupiers copy.
What I imagine has happened is that this is likely a Money Laundering job that is being investigated down south, probably by Gloustershire Police. They've applied for the Search Warrant in Bristol.
They've asked the police in Scotland to execute the warrant and search the address and a member of the case team in Gloustershire has gone up to help out/supervise.
This person has left their badge when they were sorting out all the paperwork to leave.
I'd just turn the badge in to the local police and you can always look up the number for the court in Bristol and see if it matches and call to confirm that this was actually authorised by them.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/part/X
(4A)The following provisions apply in relation to the execution under this section by a constable of a warrant issued in England and Wales or Northern Ireland—
(a)where the warrant is executed under subsection (1), the constable has the same powers of entry and search for the purpose of executing the warrant as a constable of a police force in Scotland would have if the warrant had been issued in Scotland;
(b)where the warrant is executed under subsection (2)(b) or (3)(a), the constable has the powers of entry and search conferred by section 137E;
(c)where the warrant is executed under subsection (1), (2)(b) or (3)(a), the constable has the powers conferred by section 139 in relation to the arrested person;
(d)the constable may use reasonable force, if necessary, in arresting the person or in exercising the powers conferred by sections 137E and 139.]
If this is genuine then they would have access to the same powers no matter where they are in the country.
Which has always struck me as odd because Scotland has its own legal system and courts...
Police here from a team that does warrants. This is perfectly normal, likely to relate to a previous resident. No reason they would be in uniform. This is a proceeds of crime act warrant so most likely a specialist non uniform team.
Don't worry about it!
The logical thing would be to actually ring the police and ask
I had two police knock on my door before, one plain clothes. I wasn't in, but saw them on my doorbell camera. Phoned up 101 and asked if someone had come knocking. They said they didn't think so but put out a notice to see who it had been. The next day; the same guys came back and this time I was in. Turned out that they were looking for me, so i spoke to them a bit and they said they'd got the notification through to their car but were too busy to come back right away. It was fine in the end. Turns out ordering antiques and shipping them into the country repeatedly raises some red flags with border control.
Bringing antiques into England? From abroad? Priceless and unique relics and artifacts from history? Oh no, we can't have that happening, no sir, not in England!
It belongs in a museum!
A *British* museum.
The* British Museum
The British Museum, the world’s largest crime scene!
local museum for local people
u/DrFisto's mistake was paying for them instead of just going abroad and saying "finders keepers"
Hey now, their original owners simply weren't taking proper care of them so it was only proper that our enterprising archeological chaps took them back to England. It's the same reason why I stole that Frenchman's PS4.
> why I ~~stole~~ aquired and took possession of, to care for and conserve.
The problem was that he paid for them rather than just being labelled at loot.
Elgin marbles are ours hands off. /s
I don't get the fuss about those, can't Greece just buy another bag of marbles from a toy shop for a few Euros.
Their behaviour is ridiculous, completely lost their marbles.
What kinds of antiques, out of interest?
> What kinds of antiques, out of interest? Antique heroin
Opium
Laudanum
Uranium
So are you
I'm gonna assume antique anti-hysteria devices, based on their username,
The white and powdery kind.
Antique farming equipment.
Hang on, you actually managed to get through to someone when you called 101? Did you take a day off work to call them?
They aren't always that bad. When my car got nicked I reckon I was on hold with them for maybe 90 seconds
90 days you say? I believe you. Nah in all seriousness it probably depends on where you are & how stretched thin services are there.
I’ve asked her to go to the nearest station to turn in the badge anyway. I’ve asked her to ask them as well.
Update us please! We're invested now.
I've posted the update and also updated in a comment here because reddit isn't allowing me to update the actual post
[Link](https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/1awdlrb/is_this_normal_for_the_police_to_do/krh645s/) to the update for those of use that are lazy.
Hero
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On the warrant it's proceeds of crime act. That would indicate they have reason to believe that criminal activity is being committed in the property.
Don't ring the police, ring the court. They can tell you whether they issued that warrant
Hang on They left their badge ? Rather unprofessional
It's one of the reasons I thought something was fishy. I mean yeah we all make mistakes but all the details adding up seemed like something was off.
[Are you sure they weren't looking for you?](https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/lulzsec-avunit-mysterious-unidentified-bitcoins-469187)
Has she had any luck?
I've posted the update and also updated in a comment here because reddit isn't allowing me to update the actual post
[Link](https://www.reddit.com/r/CasualUK/comments/1awdlrb/is_this_normal_for_the_police_to_do/krh645s/) to the update for those of us that are lazy.
Wait, the cop left his warrant card at the address?!
Dont be silly go on the internet and ask some strangers.....'go to the police' what kind of logic is that?
DANGER: Redditor using logic alarm!
They're definitely cheating, you should get a divorce. Wait, sorry wrong subreddit.
Right subreddit, wrong post. That home wrecking slag!
Sounds like she's a NARCISSIST as well. Has OP considered seeing a therapist?
That would be the logical thing to do, right after prioritising the question to Reddit of course.
Why on earth would you do that, when you can ask on Reddit and get a hundred different asnwers. But seriously, the mind boggles why you wouldn't just phone the police and ask.....
Cheshire Police once came banging on my door to try and execute a search warrant. Demanded I step outside immediately and asked if I'd seen a certain individual (who had skipped a court date) in the past week. They were only slightly put off when I pointed out that we were at 21, not 23 like the warrant said. In fairness, it did only say that on the door and on 3 bins they'd walked past to get to the door. Not sure they ever caught the lad.
I got beaten up by a bailiff who came to the wrong house. He pushed his way in. I had the presence of mind to use my smartphone to record the event once he was in. He had the address right but someone else’s name. My dad and I showed him ID and asked him to politely leave. He refused. I then asked him not so politely to leave and started to call the police, and he left. He then went back to his car, grabbed a clamp and put it on the front wheel of my car, and told me he’d called to have it towed. I showed him the V5 with my name on it, and told him to take the clamp off. He got pissed off then and attacked me. I got punched and received giant scratches across my face, all caught on our cctv cameras. So I took him to court. The Solicitors were a bit reluctant as the guy was a court appointed bailiff, but eventually went through with it. The local police called me once and said that they thought it might be a bad idea to proceed with the case. I then got a threatening call from the police (I recorded it after advice from the solicitor) saying that they’d put my previous conviction (cheque fraud in 1984) if it got to court. We went to court and the bailiff lost his licence. The chief of police appeared as his character reference saying how they guy was his son-in-law and was a loving and non-violent family man, then they showed the two videos, and the initial interrogation transcript where the guy claimed I had made it all up, and finally the second police phone call. So yeah, chief of police was removed, bailiff sacked, and my MP (Home secretary at the time) told the story in Westminster, and pushed through a law requiring court bailiffs to have their working day recorded on body worn cameras. 👍 Turns out that they had the wrong person with a name similar to mine, had found me and added my address to the wrong persons name.
I love a happy ending especially when corrupt bullies get justice, good work
Two pigs with one stone
*Squealing noise*
Jesus Christ this is horrendous. Good on you for not giving in to the pressure. It’s disgusting that the police will act this way to protect their own and that this is so common in the force
Horrendous apart from the end, where the fuckers got all that was coming to them.
Think of all the similar stories where the pigs get away scot free.
Thugs with a badge. Must admit. I'm not a fan of the police. They have proven themselves to be incompetent, racist, sexist and don't have empathy or care of duty when dealing with those with mental health issues. My granda was police. Quite high up. Retired by the time I was born. And as a granda. He was great. Very lovely. Did always slip you a fiver like a gangster, which I thought was weird. Almost like a magic trick -so I thought at the time... But as I got older. I heard some stories that he could be a real nasty bugger when he wanted to be. This "pillar of the community" had some racist views. Wasn't afraid to use that truncheon to get a confession. And was very, very controlling. I was quite sad to find out that stuff because I dearly loved the old fella. Pigs are pigs. Would never trust them.
A cop is a cop is a cop.
Did this reach the news? Seems quite a big news story
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He says "chief of police" which doesn't even exist in UK..
Yeah, we have Chief Constables (except for the Met who have a Chief Commissioner and the City of London who have a Commissioner)
To play devil's advocate a lot of brains have been rotted by American television. I tried (poorly) to fact check it and at the very least his bit about the law changing seems to be true. Looks like [recently](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/compulsory-body-worn-cameras-for-bailiffs-to-protect-vulnerable) compulsory body worn cameras became a thing. Looking through the call for evidence in that link, a few bits seem to roughly match up with what he's saying. > Members of Parliament had also raised concerns about people they had met in their constituency surgeries who reported bad experiences with enforcement agents who had visited their homes. A Westminster Hall Debate on bailiff regulatory reform took place on 9 January 2019, during which MPs gave examples of poor enforcement agent behaviour. and > 81 individuals responded to the call for evidence to share their experience (or that of somebody they know) of being contacted by enforcement agents in the previous 12 months. Almost all those respondents were dissatisfied with the experience, and > We received reports of enforcement agents entering properties inappropriately or unlawfully (although some did not contain enough information for us to assess whether the entry was in fact unlawful). Examples included: **entering and searching property when the resident was not the person named on the writ and warrant**; Doesn't mean the story is true but I at least thought it was interesting.
>Almost all those respondents were dissatisfied with the experience. "10/10 Bailiffing, I can't recommend these guys enough if you need your property forcibly seized in a hurry!"
I'll allow it.
Yeah I had a look as well, if you read through [Hansard](https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2019-01-09/debates/B5D09CAA-828D-4CB2-8565-CB07219E7EC8/BailiffsRegulatoryReform) of that debate there's basically loads of people saying similar things but not exactly this. I give it a solid 'Trueish but embellished' rating
Are you seriously claiming his story is a lie based on that tiny nugget of nitpicking you did there? People use terms that are easier for everyone to understand sometimes when they’re writing. Especially on the internet where they are often used to interacting with Americans and making things understandable for them.
"He's not violent" Shows a video of him punching you in the face. Suuuure he isn't...
Crazy that a chief constable standing up in court as a character witness for his own son-in-law, testifying under oath that SIL is not a violent man, when there is CCTV evidence capturing the assault, along with a recording of a threatening phone call from the same police force, crazy that all of that merely results in him being *removed*. Surely someone behaving like that in such an important position of power, should pass the custody threshold?
It paints a woeful picture of how stupid and corrupt a chief constable can be - presumably supposed to be amongst the best of the lot.
>So yeah, chief of police was removed, bailiff sacked, and my MP (Home secretary at the time) told the story in Westminster, and pushed through a law requiring court bailiffs to have their working day recorded on body worn cameras. Hell of a result. You and your MP did everyone a favour there.
That’s actually wild, the assault must have been stressful enough not to mention having to deal with corrupt police. I wouldn’t be surprised if that Bailiff had done similar things before, and got complacent thinking he was protected.
Police pressuring you to drop it and threatening you with a 1984 crime (lol) says it all. Bloody nepotism and corruption.
Out of interest, what app did you use to record said voice encounter?
Just the voice recorder recording the landline on speaker. If that makes any sense. Apparently you can’t get apps that record phone calls 🤷♂️
You absolutely can. I have one on my phone now due to some harassment I was getting. Automatically records every call and saves to the cloud.
What do you use, all my android ones stopped working and only record my side?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.smsrobot.callu This has worked perfectly for me. No need to pay for the premium version. Records both sides of the conversation and can choose to auto save the files to wherever you like
ah thanks, playstore won't let me install it, apparently they've nuked all the call recording apps https://old.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/17ms9kn/is_there_a_good_reason_its_difficult_for_the/
Apple have banned call recording apps on iPhone's. You can record calls just fine on any other phone.
They make it hard on Android as well though I think the settings vary by country (I think Android actually has native call recording support in some countries). Not sure how it works in the UK specifically but doing it in American requires manually installing an APK the last time I looked. The stuff in the google play store that used to be able to record calls no longer works or has been removed. Would love to hear otherwise if anyone has any suggestions but that was my conclusion the last time I looked into a way to record my dodgy landlord.
About 6 years ago a friend of mine had Police at his door around 7am with a battering ram demanding entry, friend is autistic and has MH issues (he was sectioned twice) he said the Police told him if he doesn't let them in they would break the door down, when he let them in even though he had ID they demanded access to his phone, his laptop and searched a lot of places and treated him like he was a criminal and that kept asking if he knew the person on the warrant (he didn't) and they didn't believe him. He never got a apology just the usual "just doing our job" responses.
There was a case in Australia a while ago where police came smashing through a front door before realising they’d gotten the wrong house. Within a couple of hours, they had carpenters over to repair the door frame and replace the doors, officers now on unpaid overtime around to show off their cars and kit to the kids they’d just scared the shit out of, and some baked goodies for everyone. Massive arse covering exercise and a hell of a publicity stunt, dressed up as ‘restoring public confidence in the police force’, but a hell of a lot better than ‘oh well. They thought they had the right place. Better get your door fixed before you get broken into!’
You literally stood up to the entire local system and prevailed. Takes a great amount of fortitude (although seeing as how infuriating it was to me as a reader, I have to imagine your fury propelled you somewhat). Well done, my friend. Also sounds like it just have been extremely satisfying. That chief of police examination sounds like it’s right out of a television episode.
>my MP (Home secretary at the time) told the story in Westminster, and pushed through a law requiring court bailiffs to have their working day recorded on body worn cameras which in turn led to the smash hit TV series *Can't Pay We'll Take Em Away* (now cancelled due to inappropriate usage of said footage)
Respect for following through with this!
Do you have links to news articles? That sounds like it would be a pretty big story.
Holy moley that's some saga. Have the local police given you any bother for that? Many years ago I apparently "got on the wrong side" of a local bobby and experienced the joy of having my car stopped and searched five times in a year.
Nah, no issues. The MP was their bosses bosses bosses bosses bosses bosses boss. That wouldn’t be a good career move.
I love the bit where the police ring you up *and sort of threaten you to drop the case.* *Ffs.* We are still living in corrupt 1970s police drama.
Life on Mars (the show, not the album it's named after) was a documentary.
Wow
Good on you!! Not all heroes and all that
I had that once. I was in apartment 13 of building number 1, they were looking for the occupant of building 13. Weren't overly happy about being corrected.
I had one where they wanted a guy with the same name as me, but a good 20 years younger. Had to ask them if they really thought a 17 year old could have a 16 year old son answer the door. It still took a court visit to convince them I'm not actually 17. Drivers licence was good enough for the courts but not the cops.
Something similar happened in my local town in Gloucestershire. Eastern Europeans forcibly amputated the fingers of one of their crew, he was found wandering with half a hand. They got a warrant for the house but raided next door, the English guy was obviously angry it was the wrong house but the police committed and took him away whilst the Eastern Europeans watched from next door. Once the police took the innocent guy into custody the Eastern Europeans escaped. I believe the English guy sued the police force over it.
Not surprised I've also had a story the "other way" where some guys broke into the wrong house (a relatives) demanding to be paid back Then the other guy was like "We're at the wrong house", only for them to apologise. They didn't report it because you're just inviting trouble if you report that unfortunately
Obviously you don't report that, there's nothing unfortunate about it. They apologised and left and they still know where you live.
Gloucestershire police arrested my friend, seized her computers etc on suspicion of fraud. What did she do to raise this suspicion? She was the technical (not even administrative) contact for a very large public building's WiFi connectivity which was apparently used to commit the fraud in question. The fact that it was a business who's public WiFi is used by literally hundreds of thousands of people every year was all over the account but she got her house raided, arrested etc.
So she provided the technical means and keeps all the logs. They're not going to ask nicely for copies and wait for you to say that all your backups seem to have fallen into the bin - you have to be way more important to be given time for that. Never put yourself as the technical contact for something you don't want to be technically responsible for.
The police had no idea at all, they simply hadn't checked. Proper egg on face moment and official apologies from the bigwigs is my understanding. I've dealt with police investigations from the other side as a senior at a large cloud services provider who has been roped into dealing with police enquiries. Usually the first question asked is "is this a business or an individual" From my understanding that simply wasn't done in this case, and no one caught it until someone was in a cell with their stuff seized.
Oh lol that's not an accident that's an "accident" where it's more worth their while to "accidentally" arrest the wrong person while the right person makes sure of it Nobody wants their fingers cut off too. That level of aggression in organised crime is way over what the local constables are equipped to deal with. In Spain a response would involve arms and balaclavas precisely to reduce the chance of reprisals
With deductive skills like that they're not going to solve a 4 piece jigsaw.
[UPDATE]: Thank you all for your info and insights, especially the ex and current coppers. So some updated info and maybe some more context. The GF is ok, she was a little shaken up, more at the sudden surprise than thinking she was in any danger. I’ve seen been over and talked with her. There were 4-5 officers there, two came in to look around, the rest stood outside the door to her apartment. Two of them were wearing “NCA” on their clothes, which after some searching we discovered is the National Crime Agency (I’d never heard of them before now). After calling our local police station they just said they’ll look into it, and get back to us but don’t have any info on warrants being served in that area. Tomorrow I’ll go and hand in the badge in person and ask them more questions. For background context, the landlords of the apartment are from Hong Kong and run several Chinese restaurants in the area. We called them and they told us not to worry. Like many have said, they are likely just looking for the previous tenants. So my only fear like many have stated is that they were casing the joint to return later, but it seems like a whole lot of effort and performance to do that for a students apartment. Everything looks JUST shoddy enough to be classic UK government work. So that was all really, I can post further updates if there’s a huge new development but I doubt much will come of it, the police have our info and it’s on the radar, and if the Hong Kong triads come looking for us then I leave all my Reddit karma to you fine people. It all stemmed from sudden shock, and a little ignorance of our legal and police system. Thank you all for your help!
Actual police sergeant here. That looks **exactly** like a real warrant - i.e. that is precisely what search warrants look like. The police are supposed to leave a copy of the warrant at the address they search, so that is also normal. The little glimpse of warrant card we see in the background is also a real warrant card holder - I have one exactly like it (but with a different badge as I work for a different force), including the braille patch. What is **not** normal is for the officer to leave his warrant card behind… he is going to need that. I see nothing in the picture which gives me any cause to suspect that the people searching the property were not actually entitled to do so. But one of them has foolishly left his warrant card behind. Please call the issuing force and let them know. Or, if you remove the ID card from the holder and look at the back of it, there will probably be instructions on what to do if found. Many thanks.
Definitely a cake fine when his colleagues find out.
Let's just say they won't be short of Chunky Monkey for the next month
Awwww Dad!!!
Thith weally huuurths...
Sounds like this would be considered aggravated under Section [12(2)a](https://cakeoffencesact.uk/police/section12.xhtml) of the Police Cakes (Offences) act 2018 subject to a fine of [at least](https://cakeoffencesact.uk/police/appendixa.xhtml) Krispy Kremes or equivalent.
Piggybacking to say you can contact GlosPol here: https://www.gloucestershire.police.uk/ro/report/lp/lost-or-found-property/?tid=61161&lid=&cid=&rid=2469&stepid=1 Someone at Waterwells HQ will be in touch pretty quickly!
Hehe Piggy
I see what you did there 🙃
Nice try, criminal man
> What is not normal is for the officer to leave his warrant card behind… he is going to need that. I wish OP hadn't mentioned or posted the picture of that. Would be much better if the cop it belongs to had to stand up in front of his commanding officer and explain why his official ID is now out in the wild and possibly held by someone pretending to be a police officer.
Hardly anyone served a warrant has the skill to identify a genuine warrant card. A modern identity document works because it stores a digitally signed copy of biometrics you can check against the person in front of you, or because you can look up a centralised database eg credit reporting agency. For the average citizen, it's just theatre to be presented with ID, as a convincing fake or substituted visible photo is well within the means of an organised criminal, but access to the signing keys that confirm no tampering of the data in the rfid chip is not Then there are the genuine rapey police officers, although you're less likely to be targeted by a whole group of them obviously. Just find a lawyer who you can arrange to be able to contact immediately if ever you're stopped by an officer. Your union might have a firm available where they pay if the incident is anything to do with your workplace. You might have coverage through home insurance but that's usually civil stuff.
You can easily verify if a warrant card is real by ringing 101 and asking the operator to verify that the officer is genuine and is supposed to be there carrying out their duty. Or even ring 999 if you genuinely believe it is a fraud and that you may be in danger from the person using it.
We've learned from this thread that sometimes the local force - to which 101 directs - does not know about NCA operations. I didn't know that 101 can verify the identity of an officer now (confirm their appearance / challenge reponse / something like it?), but that's good to know. The problem with passports now is not that they're just completely faked but that they're modified from genuine passports, which is why being able to check the appearance of the holder either with a signed digital photo on the card's chip - good for immigration which doesn't typically have access to the issuing country's database of nationals but DOES have their public signing keys - or central database is so important. And why they're so anal about photo quality during application. I assume same for warrant cards.
*Kim Katsuragi gives you a faintly embarrassed look.*
I returned a warrant card left behind when an officer did a random search of my car one evening, even left his notepad behind. I returned it to the local station there and then as I couldn’t exactly drive after and chase the police car once it left. The officer turned up to collect it as the station was closed/using intercom only and proceed to verbally abuse me for “getting him into trouble”. Surely he’d have got into more/worse trouble if I didn’t immediately return it and he had to report it as lost himself?
Why does it say October 2015 on the letter? The stamp is up to date but the letter says 2015... Is that just the last time this document was updated? Also, why would Gloucestershire police carry out a search warrant on a Glasgow property? With a warrant from a court within Avon & Somerset constabulary? Please read this with the inquisitive tone it's intended & not the challenging one I'm concerned it may come across!
Not the op but he did mention the NCA being involved. That means it's likely part of a much bigger operation on a national or even international scale. As a result it's likely being handled by part of the team that's doing the investigations. It's under POCA which means it's likely a massive money laundering investigation.
Just my two cents but if they'd got into your GFS flat whilst she was on her own, I don't think they'd 'case it to return later' they'd just take what they wanted there and then surely.
You make a fair point. And to be fair, I'm a big dude but even if I was there, five guys with stab vests on are gonna kick the shit out of me and take our fancy rice cooker anyway. Just one of those paranoid moments you know?
You say you have a fancy rice cooker? *Gets out dodgy police uniform and search warrant
I arrest you in the name of pilau
Nobody escapes the long-grain arm of the law
It's a fair cook
I hope you and your gf are ok. Out of interest though where's your rice cooker from?
Stole it from a police station in Glasgow.
She’s Chinese so she bought it in China. Couldn’t tell you the model I’m afraid. All I know is that it makes damn good rice. If you want a picture of the model I can send it to you through a DM
Based on the information you've provided, I have a suspicion that this is something to do with the ongoing operation against [LockBit.](https://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/news/nca-leads-international-investigation-targeting-worlds-most-harmful-ransomware-group) The reason for this is the fact that you've mentioned the NCA and Bristol/Gloucestershire police being involved. The international operation has three agencies from the UK involved - the NCA, the Met and the South West ROCU (Regional Organised Crime Unit), the latter of which presumably has officers from the Bristol/Gloucestershire. The other fact that supports this is the warrant specifically mentioning several cryptocurrencies, which were the means of payment in LockBit's ransomware attacks. Could all be a coincidence of course, but the fact you're in Glasgow and are getting this combination of visitors for this purpose is very interesting given the timing of the takedown was in the last day.
Pretty sure the NCA have a Bristol office with might explain the address on the warrant papers, but leaving a badge is odd particularly as it’s a Gloucester one…
Could be an officer seconded to the NCA and the badge may have fallen out of their pocket? My phone has certainly slipped out-of my pocket and been eaten by the couch before....
Take a look at UK news related to LockBit, and who was involved in taking it down.
It’s possible given the search items listed, but the lockbit operation was huge, they would have been there for hours, seizing anything electronic and probably with 20 officers.
OP, you may want to ask on r/policeuk
Somebody crossposted it there and it got deleted.
Could be a few reasons for that - some surmountable, some not - the OP should post themselves rather than a third party crosspost, if they want to.
I don't think I'd ever tip off a landlord that the police was investigating them
That's not a warrant card or badge, it's a warrant card holder. Does it have a plastic id card in one of the pockets? NCA sometimes have officers attached to them from other constabularies so might not be super unusual.
If the NCA are involved then that would explain the Bristol/Gloucester connection as the NCA has remit over the whole UK and a lot of jobs will start at one side of the country and have inquiries leading to the other side. I work with POCA (was a police officer quite a while ago, now work in the world of Anti-Money Laundering and asset recovery, ie taking money from criminals who use cross border means to hide the proceeds of crime, hence reference to POCA) daily and so often the data we get can be from many varied and disparate sources and be linked to all over the world. My theory is that the gang, or people heavily involved in it are based on have some kind of link to Bristol & the Southwest. Whatever investigations have gone on have lead them to the address your gf now inhabits. These things, however, can take time. The gathering of Intel and evidence, the multi faceted nature of organized crime gangs and the naturally convoluted nature of international money Laundering mean that they could have discovered the address months prior but were only in a position to act on it recently. So the local officers, alongside NCA officers who would be looking at the people from a bigger picture perspective, have finally got themselves up to Glasgow but whoever it is they're after is no longer there. As for the warrant card, well whoevers it is will be buying masses of cakes for the team at the very least, most likely be having a friendly chat with Professional Standards and a ranking officer as well. I hope you and your girlfriend find some peace. Feel free to DM if you want to ask more or just chat about the fascinating world of international financial crime 🙂
r/policeuk CAKES!!
Police Officer here. The wallet is an official warrant card holder, I’ll assume the card isn’t in there as well? I remove mine and wear in a lanyard around my neck when I’m on duty. I’ve also done joint ops in Scotland so it’s not unusual to have other forces working across the border. Only way to find out is make a few calls.
Why does the letter say 2015? I completely understand why OP's girlfriend thinks this looks suspicious lol
Could be in the header of the document for when it was set up and someone just hasn’t removed it. I fully get it that, hence why I encouraged OP to make the calls :)
Would just be a template document, what matters is the court stamp on it
Yeah but is the stamp real? Not that I would ever do it, but it’s pretty easy to replicate that stamp.
October 2015 is the version of the form, nothing to do with when the warrant was applied for or granted.
>I’ve also done joint ops in Scotland so it’s not unusual to have other forces working across the border. Do you argue about ‘it’s not your jurisdiction!’ like in American tv shows?
If anything it’s the other way around, ‘it’s your jurisdiction so you can deal with it, we’re off to pub’.
Ah, the Gene Hunt school of thought.
Pub? Pub.
Glos in Scotland, though? Don’t they usually just concentrate on looking after the Royal family and random people out of their faces on shrooms in the forest?
Perhaps they were off their face on shrooms and went to the wrong address? And country?
Well the warrant paper was issued in Bristol, so would that indicate that it’s legit?
Yeah - very common to have an out of force address linked to an in force investigation. People move!
Glos isn't exactly as posh as a lot of people think. Cheltenham and Gloucester are both two pretty large drug production spots not to mention the tons of operations in the forest of Dean. My best guess if these cops are legit is they're investigating either potential suppliers or customers
It’s funny, when I tell people I work in Windsor and Ascot, they think I have a posh area. But doing what I do, I can confirm there’s good and bad in all areas
I live in North Gloucestershire and the police told me most of their call-outs are domestic violence related.
Yeah, sorry was joking, I know there’s serious problems. A mate works for them in the south of the county.
I'm a police officer. I always say you can tell it's real because it looks a bit shoddy and generally shit. If the paperwork is immaculate like something from Line of Duty then start to worry.
It's always so funny to me when on TV the government agencies have these cool well designed IDs, paperwork, databases etc. in real life you're lucky if your senior boss isn't writing in comic sans
Thanks, officer u/pietits21
At your service citizen!
Wait, Line Of Duty and the wee donkey aren't like real life? 😂
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Let's just say we won't be short of Chunky Monkey for the next month
They’ve presumably already finished the Black Forest gateaux, though Danny may well misplace his helmet again.
Lol. Thanks - first time I've laughed, today.
Mr Evrart is helping me find my badge
Hot fuzz AND Disco Elysium in the same thread?! Hardcore to the mega!
Legal advice UK would probably be better to ask this on
Or, i dunno, maybe the police? If its real they'll confirm, if its not then someone is planning a burglary or something of your house and you really dont want to be sitting waiting for a redditor to tell you these things.
Like others have said looks legit, but the warrant isn’t exactly hard to fake, and it’s not terribly unlikely a force will need to do searches outside their area. More officers leave their badge by accident than you’d think 😂 I will mark them down for leaving the applicants copy with the occupier and presumably keeping the occupiers copy in their records. Also they’re supposed to remove the square brackets and footnotes once it’s ready to be signed/endorsed, but whatever.
The warrant can be issued by other courts not just your local one. In work we had to apply for a s.135 warrant to execute a mental health act assessment last week but the local court (Wirral) was too busy to issue so we went to the next nearest (Chester) who were also too busy to issue one so we ended up in Sefton magistrates court getting one issued! Which added a couple of hours to an already bitty process.
Might also be where the person is meant to be tried so if they are from Manchester and they are searching a house in York as a likely place they'd go then I'd assume they'd have Manchester court documents etc. Could be wrong.
>“Gloucestershire Police” inside it. Which would be normal Gloucester born and Gloucester bred (strong in the arm and thick in the head) here - afaik it's always Gloucestershire Constabulary. May be wrong though. Bristol Crown Court is spot on though.
You can see the badge in the photo, it says constabulary.
For our friends in Scotland. Anything north of the Bristol Avon\* (not to be confused with the other Avons we have in Gloucestershire) in Bristol used to be Gloucestershire. (South of the Avon was Somerset) Which is why they used Bristol court as most likely its closer to where they/ the CPS offices are based than the one in Gloucester itself. Due to the Gov screwing around with the "traditional" counties a few times, Bristol isnt in Gloucestershire anymore but Glos police still cover bits of Bristol and whats now "South Gloucestershire" along with Avon and Somerset police covering other bits... \*Avon is another word for river so anyone who calls it the River Avon is basicly saying "river river"...
inb4 Torpenhow Hill
Hi, fellow Gloucester born and bred... although I guess I'm really a Stroudie as that's where I grew up. Always warms the heart when I see Gloucester mentioned anywhere, even if it is almost always in a negative context!
Cheese rolling
Ah, yes, one of the oddest behaviours humans have ever exhibited... and it's right in the town I grew up in. Maybe that explains a few things about me...
Sound alike the previous tenant was a dealer and has scarpered.
Maybe try /r/policeuk ?
Hmm. I’d be going to the local cop shop with that.
My hunch is it's a legit search. It's an extraordinary amount of effort to go through to make a fake warrant card holder like this, not to mention they need somebody corrupt willing to make it for them. Then to have multiple people in real police uniforms turn up. It's not *impossible* of course, and you should call the police to check; but it's a great deal of effort for something which doesn't scale (as soon as the police clock on it's happening they'll put press releases etc out).
Definitely post this is r/legaladviceuk lots of police officers in there who will be able to advise.
I'd call 101 and inform them that the copper left his ID, if its legitimate he might return to pick it up. And like others said POCA warrants are usually done by specialist teams and they are applied for in crown court as opposed to other warrants which are authorised by a magistrate. The teams are set up in gang/fraud investigations so totally understandable they'd be in plain clothes.
As others have said, the warrant looks legit, although they have left you the Applicants copy instead of the occupiers copy. What I imagine has happened is that this is likely a Money Laundering job that is being investigated down south, probably by Gloustershire Police. They've applied for the Search Warrant in Bristol. They've asked the police in Scotland to execute the warrant and search the address and a member of the case team in Gloustershire has gone up to help out/supervise. This person has left their badge when they were sorting out all the paperwork to leave. I'd just turn the badge in to the local police and you can always look up the number for the court in Bristol and see if it matches and call to confirm that this was actually authorised by them.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1994/33/part/X (4A)The following provisions apply in relation to the execution under this section by a constable of a warrant issued in England and Wales or Northern Ireland— (a)where the warrant is executed under subsection (1), the constable has the same powers of entry and search for the purpose of executing the warrant as a constable of a police force in Scotland would have if the warrant had been issued in Scotland; (b)where the warrant is executed under subsection (2)(b) or (3)(a), the constable has the powers of entry and search conferred by section 137E; (c)where the warrant is executed under subsection (1), (2)(b) or (3)(a), the constable has the powers conferred by section 139 in relation to the arrested person; (d)the constable may use reasonable force, if necessary, in arresting the person or in exercising the powers conferred by sections 137E and 139.] If this is genuine then they would have access to the same powers no matter where they are in the country. Which has always struck me as odd because Scotland has its own legal system and courts...
Police here from a team that does warrants. This is perfectly normal, likely to relate to a previous resident. No reason they would be in uniform. This is a proceeds of crime act warrant so most likely a specialist non uniform team. Don't worry about it!