A pool party at a home in San Diego’s Black Mountain Ranch neighborhood spiraled into a scene neighbors say they’d never witnessed before, with hundreds of teenagers flooding the residential street, cars jamming driveways, and police fielding a report that a teenager suffered a bleeding head injury. The San Diego Police Department received its first call about the gathering at roughly 8:09 p.m. Sunday, according to SDPD, and the calls kept coming for hours as the crowd grew.
Residents initially believed the homeowner had rented out the house’s swimming pool through Swimply, an online platform that lets homeowners rent out pools by the hour, according to FOX 5 San Diego and KUSI News. Swimply told the outlet that no Swimply reservation existed at the property on Sunday night’s gathering and characterized it as the homeowner’s private event. That distinction matters: Swimply’s host guarantee provides up to $1 million in liability protection and $10,000 in property damage coverage, but the platform’s own policies state that coverage does not apply to incidents involving alcohol, drugs, or activities that violate local law, according to Swimply.
Neighbors described a crowd unlike anything they’d experienced at previous gatherings at the property, and residents said the parties there had been building for months. Jung Chae, who lives nearby, said the homeowner had been throwing parties nearly every weekend since the start of the year, and that steady streams of unfamiliar visitors had become a safety concern for his family. Chae said his two children were scared as the crowd swelled outside.
Calls Poured In As The Night Escalated
Callers reported loud music, people throwing bottles, vehicles traveling at high speeds, and vehicles blocking driveways, though the report notes the callers’ descriptions had not all been independently verified. Callers also reported the smell of marijuana, possible underage drinking, and fires being set. Some party attendees climbed over neighboring fences and entered neighboring properties, according to the same report…