There is a timeline thread if you want to check dates.
IMO, when the address was given to JW so he could pick up the dog, he/friends immediately went there and asked to search for her car/get video footage, and security told them no chance, only police with a warrant.
For some reason, there was a fairly, IMO, emotional reaction by the friends, I will try to be kind and say they were only trying to help, as we all know from reading Nancy Drew that we need to take immediate action to rescue our friends, even when they've been missing for a few days.
Anyway, later, when the media was interested, this horrifying response by building security was relayed to them, and it was printed, and reprinted, and reprinted, to fill up the content of news articles, because there wasn't much else to write. And some readers were equally alarmed and repeated it over and over again, for days.
Meanwhile, I expect, LE wrote up their search warrant, served it, the head office okayed it, and they got on with examining the evidence, ignoring all the amateur detectives exclaiming to each other how awful it was, that nasty building, tsk, tsk.