Whoops!

 

Whoops!

English battering ram, 1611

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

Our middle daughter once owned a flat in Crouch End, which is one of the ‘yummy mummy’ areas of London. At the time she was not a mummy of any sort – that came later.

Her flat was at the top of the house, remote from the street.

One night, while she was away from home, the Metropolitan Police received information that something nefarious was occurring in the house. They arrived in force, and used an ‘Enforcer’ to ram the front door. The ‘Enforcer’ is sometimes referred to as a ‘Rammit’ or ‘Sam.’ It is essentially a heavy battering ram, which few doors can resist, even those which have been reinforced.

The occupant of the ground floor flat was startled to find his home being breached. I don’t know whether the opera singers in the second-floor flat were present at the time.

It soon became clear that nothing criminal was being enacted in the building. It transpired that the post code the police had been given was incorrect and the ‘place of interest’ was hundreds of miles away.

The police were most apologetic and replaced the front door with one that was superior in every way to the original, and a great deal more expensive.

I often think of that as I lie in bed at night, and wonder how I would react, should such an event happen here. The conversation would be interesting.

‘Can I help you?’ would not seem to be an appropriate response, but ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ might inflame the situation.