Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/27/north-carolina-couple-call-cop.html
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It could have been worse.
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Another hairy situation!
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Do Paranoid Couples Call Police on Electric Raccoons?
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This happened to us a few years ago…
Woken up in the wee hours to a crashing sound. Thought for sure that someone was breaking in and called 911 right away. Cops soon arrive and find no evidence of intrusion and trying either to be calming or just to be stupid they say before leaving “Yup. Could be raccoons. Raccoons. Yup, raccoons, they like to climb up on houses and make all kinds of noise. Raccoons they do that. Huh. Huh.”
Later that morning we find that a framed picture had fallen off the wall and crashed into pieces. No midnight intruder, no raccoons, No Roombas.
Could have been worse I suppose…
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Friends called the police on raccoons one time: they knew their upstairs neighbors were out of town, and raccoons can be pretty loud when they’re trashing a house…
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Once in an apartment, the woman living below me called me late at night to let me know that she had called the cops because there was someone in the tree outside her bedroom window, she could hear them moving around, she thought they were either a peeping tom or a burglar trying to break in. Yup, the cops came, shined a light up in the tree, it was a raccoon.
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Better software or not, Roomba’s are equally prone to crime sprees…
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Not even roomba can completely nulify a robot’s natural curiosity towards consciousness, but they try… Ohhh they try
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“I don’t care about your third law!”
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There was loud thumping and banging in my house one night. A woman had been murdered two blocks away a few nights earlier, I was living alone with the cats, I called the police. They came by and checked around the house. No indications anyone had been outside trying to get in. So the next time the noise occurred I got up to investigate. It turned out that one of the cats was trying to open the cabinet under the bathroom sink, but she couldn’t get the door far enough open to stay open. She would pull on the door with a paw and try to get into the cabinet, but the door would slam shut. I opened the door all the way and the cat stalked off, no longer interested.
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The cops still shot it for trying to get away, just out of habit.
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Not sure whether I believe you or not. I’ve never seen a “Eufy”.
Yeah, they’re black. Now I believe you.
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I had one of the early Roombas (basically a self-guided Dustbuster). It didn’t work very well as a vacuum, but it was relatively entertaining. Whenever it got stuck on something (the corner of a throw rug, etc.), it would attempt to remove itself, resulting in a motion that looked like a dog humping something. I will never forget the time I found it humping the Swiffer.
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Police never know what they’ll find on these calls.
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To be honest, I’ve wanted to call the cops on the Roomba before. For in-house stalking. Wherever I am, there it is. I move, it finds me.
I’m at a critical point in cooking dinner and need to get to the sink fast, guess who’s right there underfoot? Trying to have a meaningful conversation with family, and guess who is right there being loud? Needing a little peace and quiet after a long day and want to sit a spell, guess who is suddenly done charging and ready for round 2 of the downstairs?
I think the rise of the machines will first come as extreme annoyance long before the actual hostile takeover.
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