we've gone to the cops. this could bite us in the ass later.

[omaewokorosu]

did I want to go to the cops? no.
did I feel the need to go to the cops? yeah.
will this cause problems with Egg? probably.
do I care if it causes problems with Egg? no.

Serena called the non-emergency line and explained everything going on (the things we've heard her say on the recordings, the things we've personally heard her say, we think she's a danger, etc) and the cop who answered (a man [derogatory]) sounded like he'd rather be doing anything but desk duty and answering phones. he said they would send someone over who was already out on patrol and have them talk to us, which is...not what we wanted? we didn't want Egg to even know we'd called the police let alone spoke to them, but here we are!

Serena went out and greeted the officer. They sent a female officer because that's what you do when there's mostly women in a house. it's to appear safe. PJPD has a lot of female cops which I found surprisingly considering how male dominated the industry is but maybe that depends on the area. she's very nice! took down statements, asked all sorts of questions especially clarifying ones. it all was going okay. the neighbours at #7 were out on their porch wondering why the cops were there (because the cops are always there at #7, there's a lot of DV issues between Shannon and her boyfriend or whoever he is) lol

IF ONLY YOU KNEW.

The officer said she needed to talk to Egg to establish what was going on with her and depending on what she said, what would come next. Basic risk assessment. It is at this point I would like to state that I am aware that in most places it's dangerous to call the police for someone who is mentally unstable—Port Jervis prides itself in making sure all law enforcement personnel are trained in crisis intervention, especially when it comes to someone having a mental health issue, after an incident happened where someone was (wrongfully) shot instead of de-escalation taking place. They have an actual crisis intervention unit. Which is rare! I would normally never call the cops in this kind of situation, but felt I had no other recourse.

I am also aware that unless Egg says she's in some kind of crisis or actively planning something or actively attempted something...they can't do anything. They can't force her into a hospital or otherwise cart her out of the house. If anything it was to scare Egg into knowing that she is being watched and we are aware of how unhinged she is, and we will not hesitate to get proper intervention involved if we feel the need for it.

So the cop went inside and was very nice, very polite, very Good Cop. I have a transcript of the entire conversation but I'm not going to put that here lol Egg now knows she's been recorded saying different things, which she had no idea of. We had security cameras both outside and inside the house—the latter because Egg was a fall risk and this way it was easier to see, if we were away somewhere, if there was some kind of medical emergency. They all record audio. In addition, on the second floor, we had all sorts of pet cams so we could interact with our girls when we were away. They also record audio.

There's also the audio recorder hidden on the staircase behind a fake plant and a flameless candle that no one knew about but us. Of course we never disclosed it. Egg knew the cameras could all record audio because H explained that when he installed everything. New York is a one party consent state, meaning you only need one person giving permission. Because Serena and myself knew we would also get picked up on these things, we obviously consented to being recorded. So Egg didn't need to. In some situations even this can be shaky because it calls into question whether you can have something recording like this—that's why you put up notices that you have cameras running and you're recording. That covers your bases.

We can say it's any of the cameras and it would probably be true—even though we don't have audio enabled by default on any of the cameras (we can toggle it on when checking in). I wasn't giving away H's secrets. OPSEC says to keep your fucking mouth shut lol she can unplug all of the downstairs cams (which I think she did at least the living room and kitchen ones) and it won't matter. the house is still "bugged".

anyway. the conversation they had was decent and lasted around a half hour. Egg made sure to direct the conversation away from her (as a narcissist does) and talked about the neighbour's unruly kids. (The officer said that if her talking to them didn't stop anything, she could always call for police to come over and sort things out. She said that even when she's not in uniform sometimes no one listens to her, but the uniform adds some oomph to what is being said. So basically, if they're not listening to you because who the fuck are you, they'll be more likely to listen to a cop because the uniform talks.)

There wasn't really much talk about the suicide, which whatever, I was more concerned about whether she was going to commit homicide against children, but that did get touched on. Kind of. Egg talked about how she's been depressed for the past 20 years because she's been living her life as a grieving widow—

Yes, really. Egg, who was "relieved" and even "glad" that my dad died, and said shit like "good riddance he's gone", was playing the Grieving Widow Card. Because that's what narcissists do, fam. They will tug on your heartstrings to get out of trouble and get you on their side.

The officer left a bunch of names and numbers of places she could get in contact with if she needed help/ended up in a crisis again and a social worker who could get her in touch with some independent living resources, and left.

Serena is concerned this will come back to bite us later. It very well might. Egg might be all omg you called the cops??? how could you??? after all I've done????
lbr Egg after everything you've done to me as a young kid, I should've had CPS called and been taken away from you. you are very, very lucky that that didn't happen.

but hey! at least Egg knows we're not fucking around anymore!

did we wanna do this? no.
did we feel there was a need to? yes.
I would rather waste their time and resources over nothing than not call and someone gets fucking stabbed to death