Civil Liberties

90-Year-Old Woman's House 'Destroyed' By Cops in Wrong-Door Raid

No drugs found.

|

Door
CBS Miami

A broken door. Smashed windows. Residue from a flesh grenade on the carpet. That's the state in which Miami cops left a 90-year-old woman's house after raiding it for drugs. They didn't find any illegal activity, but won't admit they made a mistake.

The woman was interviewed by cbsmiami.com, though she declined to be named. She said the raid happened on December 18th:

"I don't know how the cops got in here. The noise woke me up when something said boom! Like a bomb or something," said the 90-year old. …

Riviera Beach Police said after evidence of criminal activity, they got a search warrant.

"Cops standing over here talking about where's the drugs? I said what? What drugs? Ain't no drugs in here," she said.

After drug-sniffing dogs failed to find anything, the police left. When asked whether they got the wrong address, the department countered that just because the woman didn't know about drugs being sold out of her house "doesn't mean it didn't happen." That ranks pretty highly on the list of hilarious and also worrisome police excuses, in my book.

The cops have agreed to repair the damages to her house, at least—though they have not done so yet.