“You handed it to us unlocked to show documentation.”
“I’m withdrawing consent.”
The officer nodded.
“Okay.”
She locked the phone and placed it on the stone table.
“Then we won’t search anything else without consent or lawful authority.”
The HOA president grabbed it quickly.
Too quickly.
The homeowner noticed.
So did both officers.
The older officer looked toward the pool.
“Sir, do you want to make a trespass complaint?”
“Yes.”
“And criminal mischief?”
“Yes.”
The HOA president laughed.
“You cannot be serious.”
The homeowner looked at the floating dead cockroaches.
“I was planning to swim with my niece tonight.”
The laughter disappeared.
“She’s eight.”
The younger officer’s expression hardened.
The HOA president said:
“They’re dead insects.”
“You’re acting like I poisoned somebody.”
The homeowner stared at her.
“You knowingly dumped biological waste into a private pool.”
“I have no idea what else was in those bags.”
“You don’t know either.”
“Because you threw it in before I could stop you.”
The older officer asked:
“Do you have any idea approximately how many insects?”
The homeowner looked.
“Fifty.”
“Maybe more.”
The HOA president rolled her eyes.
“You counted?”
“No.”
“But I’m going to.”
She scoffed.
He raised his phone.
“The camera has high enough resolution.”
The younger officer almost smiled.
The woman saw it.
Her anger found a new target.
“You think this is funny too?”
“No.”
The officer answered immediately.
“I think you need to stop talking for a minute.”
“I am the one being harassed.”
“By whom?”
“This man has threatened board members.”
The homeowner’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s false.”
“I have emails.”
“Show them.”
The HOA president looked toward him.
“You know what you wrote.”
“Yes.”
“Quote it.”
She hesitated.
The homeowner did it for her.
“I wrote, ‘Do not enter my property again. Future trespass will be documented and reported.’”
He looked at the officers.
“That was after she sent two contractors through the side yard without permission to measure my fence.”
The older officer turned.
“What contractors?”
“Association landscapers.”
“We were inspecting drainage.”
The homeowner pointed toward a drain near the pool.
“County drainage ends six feet outside my fence.”
The HOA president said:
“Water crosses property boundaries.”
The homeowner nodded.
“Which is why a licensed county engineer inspected it.”
“Not your landscaping contractor.”
The younger officer asked:
“When was this?”
“Eleven days ago.”
“Camera?”
“Yes.”
The HOA president stared.
“You were recording then?”
“Doorbell camera caught part of it.”
He paused.
“After that, I installed three more.”
The woman looked around again.
Cameras she had not known about.
The older officer exhaled slowly.
This was no longer one impulsive act.
It had history.
He looked at the HOA president.
“Do you have somewhere else you need to be right now?”
She frowned.