AirBnB Gone Bad
Saturday morning, my sergeant, Matt, got dispatched to a possible burglary to a residence. I was on my way to assist when I got sent to another call. Matt was at the residence for over an hour and never called a detective to the scene, so I couldn't figure out what the hell he was doing. After he cleared the call, I met up with my sergeant and he told me this story. 40+ years of experience between us and it was a new one for both of us.
Matt arrives and talks with the homeowner. The homeowner seems sane, sober, and normal. The homeowner describes the following:
His long-time friend, who is a priest, was staying overnight at his residence. Both the resident and the priest went to bed around midnight. At 5am, the doorbell rings. The homeowner gets out of bed, goes downstairs, and sees no one at the door. Foolishly, he opens the door, walks down the walkway to the driveway, sees no one around, and then heads back to bed.
At 7am, the homeowner gets up and goes downstairs. On the rug at the front door is a pair of sneakers. They aren't his sneakers and they weren't there when he got up at 5am for the doorbell. The homeowner figures they must be the priest's, although the priest is still in his bedroom.
At 8am the priest gets up and goes downstairs. The homeowner asks the priest if the sneakers are his. The priest says no, they aren't his sneakers and he didn't put them on the rug. The homeowner is legitimately concerned, has no explanation for the sneakers, but decides that there must be some reasonable explanation. He and the priest go into the kitchen for coffee and breakfast. At the 8:45am, the homeowner walks back into the foyer and sees that the sneakers are now gone. The homeowner calls 9-1-1 for assistance.
Matt searches the residence. There's no one else in the residence. No broken windows. No pried doors, no signs of forcible entry. Matt then walks around the residence with the homeowner and asks him to make sure nothing is disturbed, out of place, or missing. The only thing noted by the homeowner was that some wrapped birthday presents for a family member had been moved in the den. The presents had been moved from the couch to the floor.
Matt re-interviews the homeowner and interviews the priest, as the most likely explanation is one of the two is either crazy or lying. But Matt feels they are sane and honest. Matt is at a loss. Cops hate not knowing the answers to shit like this, so Matt walks over to the neighbor's house to see if anyone there saw anything overnight and to check the exterior of the residence for signs of forcible entry.
Next door, the homeowner says he saw and heard nothing. The residence looks normal and as Matt is ready to leave, the homeowner says hey, I have a guy in from out of town staying with me for the weekend. He's renting a room that I listed on AirBnB. He was in town for a bachelor party and wedding for an old friend and he probably came in late last night. Matt, of course, says yes yes, I definitely want to speak with him!
The homeowner gets the guest up. He's visibly hungover...maybe even still drunk. Matt talks with him and he initially says he didn't see or hear anything last night. But he's obviously hiding something as he can't maintain eye contact and is being deceptive about when he came back to the house. After Matt changed to "bad cop", he came clean.
The guest booked his room on AirBnB as his buddy was getting married in Clinton. He drove to the AirBnB residence, parked his car, dropped off his bags, and called an Uber since he knew he was getting banged up with his friends. He asked the AirBnB homeowner to leave the front door open for him since he'd be out late. The homeowner agreed. After a night of partying, he Uber'd back to the residence.
The guest had never been to the AirBnB house at night and the Uber driver dropped him off at the house next door accidentally. The guest found the front door locked, so he rang the doorbell. He then walked around to the back of the house to see if there was a back door that he could enter. No luck. He came back around to the front and decided to check the door again. Open!! So he walked inside, left his shoes on the rug, and immediately realized he didn't remember where his room was in the house. Instead of waking up the homeowner, he walked into the den, moved the presents off the couch, and fell asleep.
After a few hours, the guest woke up to hearing voices. They were talking about his sneakers. Oh shit. The guest realized then that he was so drunk last night that he was in the wrong house! When he heard the two men walk into the kitchen, he snuck out of the house, taking his sneakers with him. The guest figured he'd have a difficult time explaining how he ended up in their house and probably freak them out in the meantime and get arrested for trespassing in the process.
Matt explained that he's lucky the homeowner didn't walk around the inside of the house at some point and find him in the den. It's a really good way to get shot in the face.
Matt talked with the reporting party again and explained the nearly-unbelievable series of events. They figured that they were both walking around the house at the same time, but had taken opposite routes. And the calling party forgot to lock the door when he came back inside and went to bed. Amazing.
Matt was pretty damn impressed with himself for figuring the whole thing out. I was, too, to be honest.
That guy will never forget that bachelor party.
