Ooops.. Wrong Guy - poor dog

[chadtm80]

Police Go To Wrong Address, Kill Dog
By STEPHEN THOMPSON spthompson@tampatrib.com
Published: Apr 7, 2004

PINELLAS PARK - Daniel Clauson happened to look out his bathroom window Tuesday and noticed a man jimmying the door of an apartment next door with a butcher knife.
Clauson, a 38-year-old mechanic, called Pinellas Park police to report what he thought was a burglary in progress.

He still had a dispatcher on the line when officers knocked on his door. When he opened it, five or six officers had their weapons drawn, he said. They pulled him outside by his arms, placed him stomach- down at the entranceway of his home, and, in a matter of seconds, shot and killed his English bulldog, Sir Chillin Dillon.

The officers had gotten the wrong address and went to Clauson's apartment instead of the suspected burglary site.

``They didn't know they were at the wrong apartment,'' police Capt. Sanfield Forseth said.

Clauson lives at 7665 40th St. He reported that a burglary was under way at Apt. C in the building north of his, but he didn't know the address of the building. Clauson then told the dispatcher that the burglar had left Apt. C and was going to Apt. A.

The only building address the officers were given was Clauson's, Forseth said. And they thought the burglar was in Apt. A of that building, Forseth said. That is Clauson's apartment.

Clauson said he could sense officers had the wrong address when he saw them pull up at his building and not the one next door. He said he told a dispatcher as much. She told him to relay that information to them when he answered the door about 12:45 p.m.

After they put him on the ground, Sir Chillin, who was no more than a foot tall, silently lumbered through the front door, past three or four officers, and in the direction of Officer Adam Geissenberger, Clauson said.

From the ground, Clauson yelled that the dog doesn't bite, he said.

There was some dispute as to whether Geissenberger could have retreated from the dog. Forseth said Geissenberger backed up to a fence and stuck his foot out to ward off the bulldog, but Clauson said the officer could have backed up in the front yard along the fence to avoid the animal.

When Geissenberger fired twice at Sir Chillin, Clauson, by his own account, became hysterical.

He said he jumped up and shouted, ``You shot my dog. What the hell is wrong with you? I'm the one who called. You're supposed to be next door.''

Then he ran inside and slammed the door behind him, afraid suddenly that the police were going to shoot him, he said. They didn't bother Clauson for about 20 minutes after that, he said.

``This is really bad,'' Clauson said. ``I love that dog.''

He said that if he ever suspects a crime in progress again, ``I wouldn't call the Pinellas Park cops.''

There was no burglar, Forseth said. The man Clauson saw was Jimmy Furlong, 30.

Furlong, a mover, lives in Apt. A in the building north of Clauson's, and he went to Apt. C to check on a cat as a favor for the cat's owner. He was using the knife because the cat's owner hadn't given Furlong a key, Furlong said.

Earlier Tuesday, Furlong said, the cat had had kittens.

[Lindaloo]

OH NO!! This is terrible.

I blame the dispatcher for this one.

[Guest]

I feel so bad for that guy. He was just trying to help.

[Skywatch_NC]

How horrible!

I think the least the Pinellas Park police could now do is pitch in some money for Mr. Clauson to buy another English bulldog.

Eric