I guess I thought you might have a more “severe” response than your more mellow response.  It seems to me that the idea of the police entering someone's home without consent and without an exigent circumstance is rather startling, and the entrance itself a violation of the Fourth Amendment even if it was more on the nature of a “notification” rather than a “search”.  Still, this would have been the setting of a juicy criminal procedure case if the cops had entered on their way to notify the parents, saw some contraband on a table, and arrested the homeowner.  There's a history of cops needing to take certain steps before entering a private home, and that seems to have been ignored here.On the other hand, I think the police were just trying to be helpful.  But I don't know the protocol for notifying a home owner to shut their garage door.  Doesn't the owner take this risk upon himself as a responsibility of home ownership in the first place?