---

Warrant mix-up leads police to wrong house
Couple shocked by officers' behavior, damage

By NANCY J. SULOK
Tribune Staff Writer

David Dance stands in front of his home at 1909 E. Donald St. in South Bend where he was awakened about 3 a.m. Thursday by police officers who were attempting to serve an arrest warrant for someone who apparently lives in a neighboring home.

Tribune Photo/JASON MILLER

SOUTH BEND -- South Bend police apparently were at the wrong house early Thursday when they tried to serve a warrant to arrest a man wanted on drug charges.

The residents they awakened said they were traumatized by the police conduct and upset about the damage they said was done by the officers.

"Those idiots went to the wrong house and then tried to cover it up," David Dance said....

...He said he opened the door and turned on a light but didn't see anybody. He noticed that his motion-sensitive security system was not on.

Then "a flashlight was shined in my face through our glass porch door and I was ordered to open the door,'' Dance said.

"I asked, 'Who are you?' and 'What is this about?' '' Dance said. "I was again ordered to open the glass porch door. I repeated, 'Who are you?' and 'What is this about?' ''

None of the officers identified themselves as the police, Dance said.

"That's not how we should do business," Fautz said.

He added, however, that the light-in-the-eyes tactic sometimes is used for officer safety.

Dance said he didn't know if he was going to be robbed or if the man outside was really a police officer.

"It was my fiancee who saw the officers standing there in the flanking positions with their guns drawn,'' he said. "We thought we were dead."

He said the officer moved down to the sidewalk, "again instructed me to open the door, failing to identify himself or his reason for being there, but I could now see he had his gun drawn as well.''

Only when the officer lowered the flashlight was Dance able to see the police uniform. He said four officers were surrounding his home....