Authorities in western Colorado apologized to a family with several young children after officers smashed their way into a home, mistakenly thinking a large stash of drugs was inside.
Grand Junction police received a tip Wednesday that methamphetamine was inside a home in the neighboring town of Clifton. The informant provided an exact address and specific details about where officers could find the drugs.
Armed with a search warrant, sheriff's deputies and police officers knocked on the front door but no one answered. They plowed through the door and broke multiple windows to get into the home, only to find the innocent family. Two adults and five children between the ages of 3 and 12 live there.
"We got some pretty detailed information from this informant," police spokeswoman Heidi Davidson said. "The name we were given was associated with the address. It just wasn't current."
Investigators were trying to determine what went wrong and whether the informant was credible, Davidson said.
The police department and the Mesa County Sheriff's Office planned to pay to replace the windows and fix the door. They also were arranging for new carpet to be installed because of concerns about tiny pieces of glass from the broken windows.
"We are so grateful that no one was hurt, and we want to publicly apologize to the family, and acknowledge what a frightening and disconcerting experience this must have been for them," the agencies said in a joint statement.
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