We’re the police that visited my gfs place fake?

Greetings all, to give you some context. My girlfriend has moved into a new flat a few weeks ago and everything is well, nice area etc.

This morning, a few hours ago, she got a series of loud knocks on her door and the police telling her to open the door (I wasn’t there at the time) she opened the door and they tell her they have a warrant and are searching for somebody, and could they come in. She invites them in and they have a look around but don’t take anything or ask many questions. They weren’t wearing a traditional uniform according to her (she’s from abroad)

They then asked for her information and left.

The strange part is, and what gives me a funny feeling about it all, is that A. the police left the warrant paper with her, and B. they seem to have forgotten their badge which when opened has “Gloucestershire Police” inside it. Which would be normal except we live in Glasgow. The warrant document also has court stamps from Bristol Court.

Any thoughts or advice? I’m just worried as I’m not there at the moment and it seems all rather odd.

by AV-Unit

20 comments

  1. The logical thing would be to actually ring the police and ask

  3. Executing a search warrant from 2015? Were they on the lookout for the koala bandit or something? Also the warrant is for stuff rather than people.

    Is there a warrant card in that wallet? because the wallet and the badge don’t mean much on their own.

    It’s all very fishy and I’d be in touch with the Peelers sooner rather than later.

    Edit: Update on that. I’d be onto the police now. I’m relatively confident you have had a run in with miscreants and what you have taken photos of there would be what those in the unsavoury trades would call “physical evidence”

  4. >“Gloucestershire Police” inside it. Which would be normal

    Gloucester born and Gloucester bred (strong in the arm and thick in the head) here – afaik it’s always Gloucestershire Constabulary. May be wrong though. Bristol Crown Court is spot on though.

  5. Cheshire Police once came banging on my door to try and execute a search warrant. Demanded I step outside immediately and asked if I’d seen a certain individual (who had skipped a court date) in the past week.

    They were only slightly put off when I pointed out that we were at 21, not 23 like the warrant said.

    In fairness, it did only say that on the door and on 3 bins they’d walked past to get to the door.

    Not sure they ever caught the lad.

  6. Gloucester police wouldn’t execute a warrant in Glasgow. They would have to contact Glasgow police and have them execute the warrant. Call the police immediately and tell them everything. And then return and let us know what they said. I’m intrigued.

  7. Police Officer here. The wallet is an official warrant card holder, I’ll assume the card isn’t in there as well? I remove mine and wear in a lanyard around my neck when I’m on duty. I’ve also done joint ops in Scotland so it’s not unusual to have other forces working across the border. Only way to find out is make a few calls.

  8. 1. Royal insignia is cropped.
    2. Bristol is not in Gloucestershire (Bristol is under Avon and Somerset Police)
    3. You live in Scotland.. all the documents come from England.. I would expect something from the Scottish police or government.

    It sounds like they came in to search the place for valuables, I would call the police and get your locks checked, they will likely try and break in tonight.

    Edit: Document version number is ’15 the stamp is this year, I’ve taken this out.

  9. They do give you paperwork for a house search. I was arrested for cocaine about 20 years ago and they searched my house top to bottom, then pinned paperwork on the fridge to say they’d been. Though it didn’t look like that, it was a single sheet and printed on yellow paper.

    For the record, they turned my house upside down, but didn’t find the 40 grams of cocaine I had in wraps…..in the kitchen drawer. Unlucky.

    Ring the police and check. The paperwork should have a number that corresponds with the address search on their internal records. Definitely check, as otherwise that was just a bunch of weirdos looking to rob you of valuables.

  10. Legal advice UK would probably be better to ask this on

  12. Definitely post this is r/legaladviceuk lots of police officers in there who will be able to advise.

  14. The warrant can be issued by other courts not just your local one. In work we had to apply for a s.135 warrant to execute a mental health act assessment last week but the local court (Wirral) was too busy to issue so we went to the next nearest (Chester) who were also too busy to issue one so we ended up in Sefton magistrates court getting one issued! Which added a couple of hours to an already bitty process.

  15. Like others have said looks legit, but the warrant isn’t exactly hard to fake, and it’s not terribly unlikely a force will need to do searches outside their area. More officers leave their badge by accident than you’d think 😂

    I will mark them down for leaving the applicants copy with the occupier and presumably keeping the occupiers copy in their records. Also they’re supposed to remove the square brackets and footnotes once it’s ready to be signed/endorsed, but whatever.

  18. I’m a former police officer.

    Warrant looks right. Very standard to provide a copy.

    Very normal for a warrant to be executed in a different force’s area. Especially since they seem to be looking for things to do with cryptocurrency and electronic devices. Digital crime makes jurisdiction messy. Also very normal for them not to be in standard uniform, as they’re unlikely to be in uniform day-to-day, under some branch of CID.

    I didn’t work for Gloucestershire police but to me that warrant card holder looks legit. It looks exactly like the one I had (I would assume they’re made by the same company), down to the way the lettering is faded on the right and the way the braille has imprinted into the material on the other side.

    Leaving it behind is a big cockup (may have fallen out of a pocket or something) and whichever officer that belongs to will be buying his team some cakes for it.

    Sounds to me like whoever lived in your girlfriend’s flat before her was up to something that caught the attention of Gloucestershire police. They got a warrant, and when they executed it they saw that the suspect no longer resides there. They took some standard details so that everything is documented, left a copy of the warrant (as they entered her property), dropped a warrant card and left.

  19. I’m a police officer. I always say you can tell it’s real because it looks a bit shoddy and generally shit. If the paperwork is immaculate like something from Line of Duty then start to worry.

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