February 15, 2022

"Timothy and Tracy Ferriter told [the handyman] exactly what they wanted him to build [in their garage]: an 8-foot-by-8-foot structure with its own ceiling and door..."

"The space also needed to have electricity, a window air conditioning unit and a camera in the ceiling — and it had to be built in two days.... The Ferriters... also requested the structure have a doorknob only on the outside.... The handyman said something felt off, so he contacted the Jupiter Police Department to report the incident. It wasn’t until police visited the house about one month later — after the Ferriters’ 14-year-old adopted son had run away from home — that they discovered a small room in the family’s garage that matched the specifications described by the handyman.... Jupiter police began looking into the family’s situation starting Jan. 28, when Tracy Ferriter called police to report that the teen had gone missing...." 

From "A handyman was asked to build a ‘strange’ room in a couple’s garage. Police say their son was locked inside and surveilled" (WaPo). 

The police seem to have done nothing in response to the handyman's report and only acted when the mother reported the boy missing.

21 comments:

tim maguire said...

Why did they feel the need to say there was a room just like the one the handyman said he'd been hired to build? Isn't that what they expected? Did they not merely ignore the handyman, did they actively think he was lying?

Q: Was the Jupiter police department subject to "defunding"?

Dave Begley said...

Criminals, oftentimes, are both stupid and evil.

When I was an ALJ a guy went to the main bank of First National Bank of Omaha, 16th and Dodge, and tried to take a picture of a woman's underwear with some type of shoe camera. The woman was wearing a skirt. She caught on, screamed and he fled the scene.

But a few weeks later, he tried the same thing. This time he was arrested.

True story.

Mike Sylwester said...

[It would] only have a doorknob on the outside

The correct word order:

[It would] have a doorknob only on the outside

Tina Trent said...

This isn't about mothering. The police would have responded to a call from the father or a concerned neighbor too. The carpenter's evidence was just that he built a room. We also don't know that the police did nothing. Man bites dog story. Slow day at WaPo. Nothing else happening in the world, so let's smear DeSantis.

Ann Althouse said...

@Mike Sylwester

Good catch, and I think WaPo has corrected it. I wasn't sure if I'd introduced the problem with the way I cut it down, but I don't think I did. Anyway, I've copied the sentence the way they have it now.

Bob Boyd said...

their son was locked inside and surveilled

To be fair, the parents found a MAGA hat hidden in the boy's bedroom and they came home and caught him watching Fox News on more than one occasion.

Bilwick said...

It reminds me in an odd way of a time I went with a work buddy to a hardware store. He was trying to get the right paint for a project at home. One of the store's employees was being very helpful, so I decided to have some fun, asking the employee, "Now, will this kind of paint cover up bloodstains?"

gilbar said...

The carpenter's evidence was just that he built a room.. Man bites dog story.

after all, maybe the carpenter had been hired by a Federal Nuclear Expert..
That was going to use the room as a sex dungeon to sexually assault and molest "dogs"
And we all know, that's PERFECTLY NORMAL

FullMoon said...

Yeah, when the fourteen year old boy leaves the house at night, carjacks an old lady, robs a 7-11, gets in a police chase ,hits and runs, killing two people, people would say "I blame the parents, they should have locked him in his room".

What? You guys never knew a kid capable of that? Juvie full of them.

Yancey Ward said...

Is it really the wrong word order? Only seems to be an adverb in that sentence and not an adjective.

Yancey Ward said...

"When I was an ALJ a guy went to the main bank of First National Bank of Omaha, 16th and Dodge, and tried to take a picture of a woman's underwear with some type of shoe camera. The woman was wearing a skirt. She caught on, screamed and he fled the scene.

But a few weeks later, he tried the same thing. This time he was arrested."


Howard was told to leave Omaha and never return.

Lucien said...

But if word ever got out that he'd been left in that room UNSUPERVISED when the parents went out for a drink, Child Protective Services would have been on it.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

They should have hung a few chains and some black leather around. That way the could've passed it off as Mommy and Daddy's private time place.

Mark said...

These are the kind of situations where the police need to suffer what they have caused others by their malfeasance. Everyone associated with the report and failure to respond should rightly spend substantial time locked in a cell of their own.

Joe Smith said...

Is this a Facebook analogy?

Spiros Pappas said...

I had a tenant who locked his teen daughter in her bedroom (deadbolt lock on a flimsy hollow core door). This is a pretty obvious violation of the fire code (and a red flag for child protective services).

Maybe it's okay to lock up wandering toddlers though...

Tom T. said...

I'm not sure what the cops could have done with the handyman's report. There are any number of closets in my house that only have doorknobs on the outside. There are plenty of valuable collectibles that benefit from temperature control (wine, cigars, maybe even printed material). Besides which, the handyman's knowledge all came from a time before the parents had actually used the shed. All he'd be able to say is that it felt like they were planning something weird. What do we want a police officer to be able to do with that information?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The predominant preoccupation for the handyman was left out of the story.

The handyman worried the enclosure would encourage prostitution.

#UnsaidThings

Balfegor said...

I don't know my first thought would necessarily be that the garage room is going to be used to hold a captive. I would probably have thought it was for food that requires climate control or something. Maybe a wine cellar, with a camera to make sure animals or beggars aren't getting in. Although if there was a window I guess that wouldn't necessarily make sense.

mikee said...

Police don't do building code enforcement, the handyman should have contacted the city building inspectors about this odd, unpermitted job.

n.n said...

Planned, not planned-planned childhood in a home-based clinic.