Police banged on the front door of an 81-year-old cancer patient in the middle of the night – to search for an officer’s personal mobile PHONE.
Brian West was left scared and confused after three police officers turned up at his home at 1.30am looking for the phone.
They told Mr West a tracker device had placed the phone – which was lost by an officer during an earlier police chase – in his home.
But the pensioner never had the phone and the mobile was later found at another address. Now his family has complained to Staffordshire Police about his ordeal.
Son Jon, 46, said: “The police must have banged pretty loudly because my dad doesn’t have the best hearing and he sleeps in a bedroom at the back of the house.
“The visit left him confused and panicked. It is not fair to wake an innocent person up in the middle of the night, never mind an 81-year-old in remission from cancer.
“I think he was treated pretty badly. When my sister complained they suggested that a cup of tea would be the solution and when I phoned they were saying they had to act quickly.
“They were not apologetic. If we hadn’t complained I don’t think we would have been given an explanation at all.
“I have never heard of the police banging on a door for a phone.
“Normally people just get given a crime number.”
The police officer lost his personal mobile phone at 9.45pm last Friday after he dropped it as he chased after a suspect through the Staffordshire town of Leek
A tracker device then mistakenly pinpointed the phone to Mr West’s home in the town.
The phone was later recovered from a house in a nearby street with no action taken against that person who said they planned to hand it in the following day – although police are unable to say at what time they visited the address.
The police officer discovered the phone was missing after returning to Leek Police Station.
A police spokesman said: “The tracker indicated the phone was at an address in Burton Street, Leek, and officers attended to make inquiries at the home but these proved negative.
“A second ‘track’ of the phone indicated it was at an address in another street. It transpired it had been found by a member of the public who had taken it home rather than handing it in.
“Local sergeants have spoken to both the son and daughter of the resident from Burton Street about their concerns that officers knocked on his door so late at night and explained the circumstances of their attendance.
“They were assured that there was no intention to cause him any distress.”
