Updated: April 10 at 3:14 AM
On Monday, two men dialed 911 at 1:48 p.m., soon after, the sheriff’s office made a post on Facebook to report that someone had broken into a home in the Cedar Hills neighborhood just outside Beaverton, Ore, which is about seven miles west of downtown Portland. The alleged intruder was locked inside the bathroom of the home, the caller claimed, adding that he could see moving shadows under the door.
A nearby detective rushed to the scene after the reported call. Within minutes, three other deputies from the sheriff’s office joined the detective, bringing along two canine officers from Beaverton’s police force, DiPietro mentioned. The law enforcement soon learned the full story from the concerned callers.
“There was two gentlemen house sitting for their nephew, who is an adult. They go out to walk the dog, and when they come back, they hear something in the bathroom,” DiPietro said. “The door is shut and locked, and they believe someone is in there. So, they called the police, as anyone would.”
Pounding noises kept coming from inside the bathroom in the suburban home outside Portland, Ore. Cops surrounded the door, ready to act. The officers upholstered their guns, shouted that they were police and demanded that the suspect inside let them in.
With no response and more banging, the police assumed the intruder was trying to force open a window to run away.
The cops burst in all at once, aiming and ready to fire.
Then, out of surprise, they saw it: a little Roomba robot vacuum, stuck in the far corner, repeatedly slamming into the shower door.
“There was just immediate laughter,” Sgt. Danny DiPietro, a spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “They didn’t know what was going to happen. They’re ready for anything, and then it was like, ‘Whoa, what? What’s going on here? Am I being pranked?'”
The robot robbery will forever be told around the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, DiPietro mentioned.
“Every call is unique, and this was a fun one,” he said. “There are a lot of parts of our job that can be not the best. This is one that is going to stick in your mind for a long time for a good reason.”
