The couple thought the raid by Cook County Sheriff's police was a home invasion or an attack from gang members. Authorities blame the middle-of-the-night raid on bad information.
A basement window was smashed and the back door broken. Glass was all over the place at the Jackymec residence on the 5600-block of South Kilbourne.
"Came like storm, you know, like World War II. I was in Germany," said resident Anna Jakymec, 84. "The soldier came to the door, same thing has happened to me last night."
Jakmymec and her 89-year-old husband were sleeping around 11:30 p.m. Thursday when they heard the smashing sounds all around their home. Mr. Jakymec fell out of bed.
The couple says approximately 20 officers were conducting a raid and a search warrant in their home -- the wrong home.
"They burst into the house simultaneously from two different directions, and they entered the basement. They tore it up. My mother's been cleaning it up. They damaged both doors coming in," son Andrew Jakymec said.
The search warrant from Cook County Sheriff's deputies has the correct address on it, but the research apparently was dead wrong. The warrant lists a different name of a person who supposedly lived at the home and says that crystal meth and cocaine would be inside.
"It doesn't exist. And where did this information come from?" asked Andrew Jakymec.
"They said we [will] pay it for you. We [will] fix for you everything," Anna Jakymec said, adding that no one was there Friday morning to help in the clean-up.
Andrew Jakymec says he wants the sheriff's office to pay for the damage and he wants an apology, especially because of the shock his parents went through.
A spokesman released this statement, "We recently received information from a confidential informant about illegal activity happening at this house. This informant has previously provided credible information that has assisted law enforcement agencies in solving other crimes. That informant identified this house as the location where illegal activity was occurring. After providing information to prosecutors and judges, our request for a search warrant was approved. As soon as we entered the home, we knew this couple was not involved in the activity alleged. Our officers immediately requested the assistance of an interpreter and, as a precautionary measure, a medic, while also asking the couple to contact a relative who could assist in the situation. Our officers then remained on the scene to provide information to that relative. We're continuing our investigation into the original information and the incident itself is now under review. 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. We are now working with the family to address the property damage incurred during this incident."
Officials say they do plan to reimburse the Jakymecs but have not issued a formal apology.
