A TERRIFIED family woke to the sound of their door being smashed in with a battering ram.
They thought it was burglars and tried to call the police . . . but then found out it was police who had broken into the wrong house.
Nicola Fyfe, Mark Barrett and their three children were in bed at their home in Rochdale when four officers tried to break down the front door at about 7.30am.
As mum Nicola ran downstairs to call police, Mark opened the door, which had almost been detached from the frame by the blows.
The couple say they were ordered into the front room and forbidden to go upstairs to get the children, aged seven, six and three.
Two children had to be woken up, but the couple's six-year-old son saw everything from the top of the stairs.
It was only when Nicola asked to see the search warrant that the mistake came to light - it was meant for another house in Cutgate Road.
Nicola, 33, said the most upsetting part has been the effect on her children. "It was very traumatic to be separated from my children in my own home, especially as I knew at least one of them knew something was going on. They went to school afterwards because I wanted things to stay normal for them.
Horrified
"I'm a parent governor at my child's school and I'm horrified at the idea that people might wrongly think we are criminals.
"I don't really want to go to the Independent Police Complaints' Commission and normally I'd be the first person to defend the police, but I don't feel this has been resolved yet."
Mark, 44, said: "The council told us it can't authorise work on the door without a crime number, but the police told us no crime has been committed.
"I feel like we were held hostage in our own home.
"The police always tell you to ask for ID before you let anyone in your home. But they refused to show us any."
The sergeant in charge of the raid and his detective inspector boss visited the family the same day with flowers and a £40 Argos gift card for the family.
A police spokesman said: "We have taken responsibility for this incident. We offered to pay for any damage and the family has been compensated."
Tweet
Police raid wrong house
December 17, 2008
Showing comments 1 to 25 and replies | View All
umpire 2, Salford M7 4HT (17/12/2008 at 09:27)
Did they not read the warrant, did they not check their intelligence.
I suggest that the 4 officers involved should have to go for reading lessons quickly for Christmas now the cards have gone out.
Barney Gumball (17/12/2008 at 10:04)
Superbean 123 (17/12/2008 at 10:09)
michael mcgookin (17/12/2008 at 10:46)
Fran M (Permissum Populus Constituo) (17/12/2008 at 11:23)
Tell that to the Menezes family. 'Sorry, it was an honest mistake!'
The Police seem to have become a law unto themselves. I wouldn't trust them with a peashooter.
When they appear on these 'spy on the wall' TV shows it demonstrates how beligerant and intollerant they have become.
They have become a force not a service.
Superbean 123 (17/12/2008 at 12:57)
umpire 2, Salford M7 4HT (17/12/2008 at 13:07)
Wasn't this man in the country illegally, stayed over his visa and now we the taxpayers have to pay for his death due to bad intelligence or whatever.
Isn't it amazing, that people who do not live in this country can sue our police for the death but in their country if we tried that, we would laughed out of the country as they deport us at the same.
stalyvegasblue (17/12/2008 at 13:11)
Superbean 123 (17/12/2008 at 13:36)
Black Flag (17/12/2008 at 13:48)
Because unquestioning love for authority gives you situations like Nazi Germany.
The police aren't a difference species, they are people like the rest of us, they have the same flaws as the rest of us and they should be subject to the same laws as the rest of us.
Superbean 123 (17/12/2008 at 13:49)
ilyas orhanli (17/12/2008 at 14:46)
Bean B4, manchester (17/12/2008 at 14:54)
"A MAN has won £41,500 in damages at the Court of Appeal after a metal goalpost fell on him during a kickabout with his son. Michael Hall, 45, from Oldham, suffered “nasty” injuries to his jaw and teeth in the accident in the Lake District caravan park."
At £10 for a broken front dooe then.
power to the people uk (17/12/2008 at 15:10)
Black Flag (17/12/2008 at 15:10)
And a willingness to question authority created democracy - the fruits of which are still enjoyed (but largely wasted) today.
"At £10 for a broken front dooe then."
That's an interesting approach to justice - an upper limit on penalties for damage at the cost of repair.
It's just a shame to householder didn't have chance to inflict some damage on the intruders.
Bean B4, manchester (17/12/2008 at 15:27)
"And a willingness to question authority" in the 1960s got us into the bloody awful mess we are in today.
Sadly, it starts with questioning authority and ends in ignoring any rules, laws or advice that doesn't suit the individual.
The result is the anarchy we have today: kids stabbing kids, kids stabbing teachers, a tidal wave of vandalism etc etc.
Sorry Black Flack but 'freedom' causes problems. Bring back heavy authoritarian government, mandatory military service, minimum state benefits, capital punishement, public corporal punishment etc etc.
Black Flag (17/12/2008 at 15:49)
I don't think it did. The problem we have today is a culture of irresponsibility created by authoritarian government telling people that they aren't fit to make their own lifestyle choices and the government has to take responsibility for everything. It's ended up with too many people believing it and thinking that nothing they do can ever be their fault.
The nanny-statist approach simply doesn't work. People need to be made responsible for their own actions.
Superbean 123 (17/12/2008 at 16:32)
Black Flag (17/12/2008 at 16:51)
The police are just people, Superbean.
HAPPYTOM, MANCHESTER (17/12/2008 at 16:55)
Esso Blue. Pie munching storm trooper, Planet Blueto (17/12/2008 at 17:13)
Labour £40.
One tin Cadburys roses £4.50.
Bunch of flowers £15.
Apology £0 Gratis.
Total £139.50.
Good Evening all.
Henry Piggot-Smythe, Prestbury (17/12/2008 at 17:39)
Superbean 123 (17/12/2008 at 19:11)
Superbean 123 (17/12/2008 at 19:25)
Esso Blue., Planet Blueto (17/12/2008 at 19:58)
99% out of a hundred how did you come to that figure. Did you know and not a lot of people now this, that more criminals live in privately owned property than lives in Council.