About 18 months ago, I was awoken at 6:00 am on a Friday by someone hammering at the door. It was a swat team in full gear, weapons in hand. They pulled me out of my house and in front of my gawking neighbors, questioned me intently, raided my place, and took thousands of dollars worth of stuff from my home including my computer and a video camera, and being a working class schmuck, I still haven't replaced it all.
When I finally got served the warrant, I was shocked that they were searching for child porn. I have never looked at, searched for or collected anything of that nature. But it was my word against theirs. They said they'd been monitoring my internet connection, but apparently their software sucks because I don't own or look at child porn.
After months of tortured waiting, they came up with nothing, and didn't bother to let me know until my lawyer contacted them and asked. In the meantime, I had to tell my family and closest friends that I was being investigated for this- and now I still wonder if the people closest to me trust me, even though nothing came of it. I have nephews and nieces who are kids, and now my brothers and sisters get to wonder if they can trust me around them, even though I have taught kids in several jobs and passed numerous background checks.
To top it off, they took all of my photos, and my back ups of those photos, dating back more than a decade- they're all lost now. I had been working on several short stories and a book- years of writing, gone, with their back-ups.
I also suffer from anxiety and panic attacks now, and feel enraged by the mere mention of the police. They screwed up my life and my relationships with my closet friends and family without apology. I wonder how many innocent people got treated the same way so the cops can play hero?
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