A police department in northwest Texas has apologised for taping a see-through bag of “milk” on the front door of a man, who it wrongfully believed was the rightful owner of the spilt white substance.
JR, a local radio host for KRBL in Lubbock, Texas, shared a video from his Ring doorbell camera on Facebook last Wednesday when he said he was stunned to find a small amount of white liquid inside a see-through bag taped to his front door.
More surprising was the fact that the doorbell footage showed an officer from the Lubbock Police Department taping the bag of “milk” to the door, causing the apartment block resident to phone 911 as he made his to work that morning, EverythingLubbock.com reported last week.
“I go to leave for work to do my morning show, I opened the door and there is something hanging, a liquid in a bag on my door,” JR said in an interview with the local news outlet, adding: “This is not a radio stunt. This is real, it happened to me and I don’t know why.”
He added in his original Facebook post: “I called the non emergency line (thanks to Kyle at dispatch) who told me they found it in an investigation, and thought it might be mine. I asked what it was, and he said it’s milk. It’s like a sip of milk. Why? I have absolutely no idea. And no, it’s not my missing bag of a sip of milk,” the Facebook user added. “Mine was chocolate milk.”
The post and accompanying video soon went viral on social media, with many dubbing the situation “milk gate”, in a reference to the “water gate” scandal that brought down the administration of former US president Richrd Nixon.
The Lubbock Police Department issued a statement on Wednesday night clarifying what had happened with the “milk” bag, which it apparently admitted should not have been “returned” to JR.
The department said one of its officers had been called to the 5200 block of Bangor Avenue at 7.37pm on Tuesday last week “for a check subject call”, and was told that the bag with an ‘opaque white liquid that appeared to be milk’ was left on the caller’s door.
That same caller allegedly told police “they wanted the officer to return it to what they believed was the correct apartment. So, our officer did just that,” and placed the milk on JR’s door.
Admitting an apparent mistake, the department added that while “the officer thought he was doing a good deed, based off the video footage captured, we recognise this was not the best course of action. We apologise for any confusion the video may have caused without knowing the full story!”.
It still remains unclear why the original call was made, and whether or no the milk-like liquid was in fact a dairy product.
“This is, hands down, the weirdest thing I have ever read,” commented one Facebook user. Another added: “Hey, don’t cry over it...you know there’s no crying over spilt milk”.
A video on TikTok also posted by JR has seen more than 14 million views.
The Independent has approached Lubbock police for comment.
