A police officer came to a woman’s door, hoping to take a look at her doorbell camera footage. She told him “No thank you.”
Ring camera footage of the encounter was uploaded by TikTok user Hala (@halawedemboyz). In it, a police officer approaches a porch, holding an opened folder. After no one answers the door when he knocks on it and rings the doorbell, he starts to walk away. However, a woman, speaking through the doorbell camera, stops him in his tracks. “Yes?” a woman, who Hala identifies as her mother mother, asks.
“Yeah, hi,” the officer says, returning to the porch. “I’m Detective Bishop with Sunnyvale Police Department.” Before the detective says anything else, the woman cuts him off. “No thank you,” she tells him.
Hala revealed in the caption that her mom was “at work and couldn’t hear him i think she thought he was trying to raise money for something.”
Her response clearly catches the detective off guard. “What’s that?” he asks.
The woman repeats herself.
“I work for the police department, and I see you that yup have a camera here. We’re looking to see if you captured anything last night around midnight,” he says.
In the text overlay, the content creator wrote, “The police came to my door this morning and my mom told him, ‘no thank you’ like he was a salesman.”
@halawedemboyz she was at work and couldn’t hear him i think she thought he was trying to raise money for something 😭 #ringdoorbell #ringcamera ♬ original sound – hala
The Daily Dot reached out to Hala via TikTok comment and direct message as well as to the Sunnyvale Police Department via press email.
Viewers found the video humorous
Her video amassed 1.1 million views, and viewers were stunned her mom told the detective “no thank you.”
“No bc his notebook definitely made it look like he was selling vacuums or direct tv,” one viewer said.
“I know he was like ‘I beg your pardon? No one has ever said that to me before,’” a second said.
In response to viewers who were curious about whether the doorbell camera captured anything.
“No it didn’t it only got a picture of cop cars on our street but nothing else,” Hala replied in the comments section. Hala also said salespeople or people hoping to raise money for something often come to their door, which is why her mom said “No thank you.”
Do you have to open your door for the police?
According to a criminal defense attorney in California, you do not have to open your door to the police.
Furthermore, according to Texas Law Hawk, you also “don’t have to let police inside your home without a warrant.” Texas Law Hawk notes that there are only some exceptions to this, like when “someone’s life is in immediate danger.”
“If they claim to have one, ask them to hold it up to a window or slide it under the front door,” it recommends. “You don’t have to talk to the police. If you do decide to talk with them at your home, step outside and shut the door on your way out.”
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