"Computer Glitch" Made Cops Raid Brooklyn Seniors' Home

The NYPD says a computer database glitch is responsible for repeatedly dispatching officers to a Brooklyn house where two law-abiding senior citizens reside. Since 2002, cops have knocked on the door of a Marine Park home owned by 83-year-old Walter Martin and his 82-year-old wife Rose at least 50 times in search of witnesses, accused robbers, and murder suspects.

Police officials told the Daily News that the Martins' address was selected to test the department-wide computer system in 2002. Since then, the address has repeatedly come up as a result in different database searches—and officers have visited the house as a result. The Martins complained to the Mayor and the Police Commissioner about the visits in 2007, and the NYPD promised it had corrected the glitch. "The department addressed the problem, and it was corrected back then," NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the Post. "Somehow, it has popped up again."

Now, the NYPD has flagged the address, so officers won't be dispatched to the home until it has been double-checked. The Martins—who say the police visits are frightening and bad for their health—remain skeptical. "It seems like too simple a correction for something that has been going on for eight years," said Rose. The man who owned the house before the Martins purchased it in 1997 said he was also the victim of frequent police visits, which he believed were the result of prank 911 calls by a still-unknown enemy. "I always thought I was being targeted personally—and, to be honest with you, it freaks me out that it's happening again."