They Didn’t Want to Wake the Family. Deputies Showed Up Instead.
A late arrival in Chauncey, Ohio, turned into a trespassing call. The people deputies found in a vehicle were visiting family.
Some people arrive late and try not to wake the family. In Chauncey, Ohio, that attempt at courtesy ended with sheriff’s deputies showing up.
On October 6, Athens County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a trespassing report on Lexington Avenue, according to The Post’s report on the sheriff’s office blotter. Deputies found people in a vehicle. The people said they’d arrived late at night and didn’t want to wake their family.
Residents confirmed they were family.
That is a spectacular reversal for a plan based on not bothering anybody. Keep the visit quiet, skip the late-night commotion, and instead become the reason a deputy comes down Lexington Avenue. The noise budget has been exceeded.
It’s the sort of decision that makes sense right up until the vehicle becomes part of a trespassing report. Late arrivals are awkward. Do you announce yourself? Do you wait? How much courtesy is too much courtesy? This group found one possible answer, though I doubt anyone would recommend testing it twice.
To be clear, the report does not say these people were trespassing. It doesn’t say who called, how long they’d been there or what, if anything, deputies did afterward. It says deputies checked a report, heard the visitors’ explanation and got confirmation from the residents.
That’s enough. No need to invent a getaway plan or a family feud. The actual sequence is strange enough: people didn’t want to wake their relatives, and now their relatives had deputies asking whether they knew the people in the vehicle.
Next time, a knock might be the quieter option.
Sources
Information checked: October 18, 2026.
The conversation
Have a thought? Add it below. Comments are reviewed before they appear.
