Cops raid music fan’s flat after Alexa Amazon Echo device ‘holds a party on its own’ while he was out
A MUSIC fan has been left with a huge bill after his voice-operated Amazon Echo device 'threw a house party' while he was away.
Cops were forced to break into Oliver Haberstroh's flat in Hamburg, Germany, after neighbours complained about deafening music blasting from inside - but found the apartment empty.
Mr Haberstroh claims he walked out of his flat to meet a friend on Friday night after checking that the lights and music were switched off.
He wrote on Facebook: "While I was relaxed and enjoying a beer, Alexa managed on her own, without command and without me using my mobile phone, to switch on at full volume and have her own party in my apartment"
"She decided to have it at a very inconvenient time, between 1.50am and 3am. My neighbours called the police."
After knocking on the door, the officers called an expert to break the lock open - and refused to hand over keys for the replacement until they'd been paid for the locksmith.
A police spokesman said the source of the noise was "a black jukebox which is usually activated by voice control".
An Amazon spokesman said: "Working directly with the customer, we have identified the reason for the incident.
"Echo was remotely activated and the volume increased through the customer’s third party mobile music-streaming app.
"Although the Alexa cloud service worked flawlessly, Amazon has offered the customer to cover the cost for the incident."
It comes just weeks after a mischievous parrot used Alexa to order itself a set of ten gift boxes while the owner was away.
The Amazon Echo is an intelligent personal assistant which allows owners to play music and control the lighting and thermostat by voice command.
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