A mere 10 minutes after the package, which was not actually addressed to anyone in the family, was delivered, police broke down the front door and confronted the family with guns drawn.
Unfortunately, police raiding the wrong home is far from rare although I guess we can be grateful that no one was killed in the botched drug raid which actually never turned up anything illicit.
The Lake County News-Sun reported that Paul Brown, a 58-year-old architect, was in the basement of his home when a “huge noise” drew him upstairs where he was swiftly met with a gun in his face.
According to Brown, he was handcuffed and placed on a chair with a gun still pointed at his face. “They wouldn’t tell us why they were there,” he said, referring to the police.
Only after the fact was Brown able to piece together what actually happened.
“A package was delivered, it was about 18 inches by 18 inches 22 to 24 inches tall, by a postal inspector and was accepted outside the open garage by Brown’s son-in-law, Wilmer Aries, 28, who is married to his daughter Ericka, 23, who also live in the home,” the News-Sun reported.
Brown said that Aries then brought the package inside the house, placing it in the foyer. Brown never actually saw the package but Aries said it was addressed to a completely different house.
To make matters even worse, the search warrant address listed Brown’s house as in Waukegan when in reality it is in Beach Park. Brown also said he thought the package was addressed to someone name Oscar with a different last name.
Only 10 minutes after the package was accepted, police officers from the Metropolitan Enforcement Group (MEG) “smashed in the front door and began ransacking the house, even pulling out insulation in the basement,” according to the News-Sun.
“They crashed things, they smashed things,” Brown recalled. “You couldn’t walk into a room because everything from the drawers was thrown around and emptied onto the floor.”
According to Brown, it was completely unnecessary for the police to break down his door in the first place.
“The garage door was open. They could have just walked in,” he said.
Brown said that the search turned up no drugs whatsoever and the police took the box – allegedly containing marijuana – with them.
It is not all that surprising to learn that the calls placed by the News-Sun to the Metropolitan Enforcement Group were never returned. It is also not shocking, but still troubling to learn that the Metropolitan Enforcement Group hasn’t returned Brown’s calls either.
Brown was clearly disturbed by the incident beyond just wondering who is going to pay for his door valued at $3,000 12 years ago along with the $130 lock set.
“It’s pretty shadowy and pretty bizarre for us,” Brown said, referring to the incident which lasted a whopping two hours starting around 4 p.m. “I was terrified. My chest was hurting and I am a diabetic and prone to heart attacks.”
To add insult to injury, Brown said that the officers were high-fiving and fist-bumping each other as they were tracking the shattered glass from his front door around the house.
Brown also said that his 77-year-old mother-in-law was in the kitchen when the raid happened and the police opted to give her the search warrant to read instead of actually giving it to Brown.
“I was basically held hostage,” said Brown, while adding that his family is “not hard to investigate.”
“They were upset they didn’t find anything. When I asked them who was going to pay for the door they basically said, ‘Not us’,” said Brown.
I hate to say it but I really wouldn’t be all that surprised if Brown never was reimbursed and never even received an apology from the police. After all, they didn’t kill any pets or family members so he should be grateful, right?
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