Eighty-four-year-old Anna Jakymek said she was preparing for bed late Thursday, when she heard loud noises in her Southwest Side home. Jakymek initially thought her 89-year old husband Andrij, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease, had fallen out of bed, but quickly realized something else was going on, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"I hear bad noise, I thought somebody breaks in," Jakymek told NBCChicago.com. "In that time, about 20 guys came in, and they said they were looking for guns and narcotics. They tell me to go into the bathroom. ... They search everything. ... I was scared. I thought it was gang."
The men who burst into the home reportedly were members of the Cook County Sheriff's Police Gang Crimes Unit, executing a search warrant for guns and narcotics.
"They show me a sheet with a woman and man who complained we have that. We don't," Anna Jakymek told the Tribune.
During the raid, officers reportedly broke a window and two doors. According to NBCChicago.com, the Jakymeks' son estimates repairs could run up to $3,000.
When contacted by AOL News, a spokesperson for the Cook County Sheriff's Office declined to comment, but in a follow-up e-mail, the department said the raid was based on information it had obtained from a confidential informant.
Sponsored Links
"This informant has previously provided credible information that has assisted law enforcement agencies in solving other crimes," the e-mail stated. "That informant identified this house as the location where illegal activity was occurring."The sheriff's office said that upon realizing their mistake, officers contacted a family member and requested the assistance of a medic to ensure that the Jakymeks had not been injured during the raid.
"The incident itself is now under review," according to the sheriff's office e-mail. "Over the last four years, our gangs and narcotics unit has served more than 500 search warrants, and it is incredibly rare that those searches have resulted in this sort of outcome."
The Sheriff's Office said it is now "working with the family to address the property damage incurred during this incident."