MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Imagine waking up to police at your front door, but you didn’t call them. That’s been happening to one man, over and over again.
Carl Larkin says he wants to get to the bottom of a problem that’s been plaguing him at his house on Cella Street in Orange Mound. It’s ruining his peace of mind.
“It’s hard to go to sleep at night, because you don’t know when that doorbell is going to ring,” Larkin said.
It was late on a Wednesday night in mid-November when Larkin says his dog started barking at a noise outside. Hesitant, Larkin approached his front door while his Ring doorbell camera started recording.
It was the police.
“They asked me, ‘Is everything ok?’ I was like, yes. They were like, ‘Did you call police?’ I was like no. I didn’t call police.”
Officers told Larkin they got a call about a disturbance, but Larkin made it clear he didn’t make that call.
He thought that was the end of it. But then it happened again.
Three days later, his doorbell camera captured police back at his home. They didn’t tell him who had called the police.
“They didn’t give a name or anything,” he said. “They just called and asked we check around the house because somebody believed there was someone outside.”
Larkin reiterated he didn’t call police, and he’s provided proof. But police came again and again.
According to MPD’s records we uncovered, between mid-November and the end of December, officers were called to Larkin’s home more than two dozen times.
Calls came in at all hours for things like a possible prowler, armed party or something suspicious.
Larkin says he didn’t make any of those calls.
“They actually got to the point where they knew me, and so when they came to the house and saw me, and were like, ‘Yes, I know you didn’t call.’ I was like yes, I didn’t call.”
Larkin said he filed a complaint with MPD about the calls and was told someone is making the calls through an app.
Larkin says the app hits the cell tower and then pings his address, so they’re trying to track down that number.
He said the calls stopped for a few days but picked up again.
A Memphis Police Department spokesperson told us they are looking into it.
We later found out that after we asked questions they showed up again at Larkin’s home to get him to fill out paperwork so that, if and when they find this person, they can move forward with harassment charges.
“Someone is playing a prank. We need it to stop,” he said.
As of this week police said they “have a person of interest identified.” MPD hasn’t said what app was used, or whether Larkin is the only person this is happening to.
Larkin said after more than 35 times, police finally stopped showing up at his home. He’s finally getting sleep.
