Anders residents were startled to see masked and automatic rifle-toting police officers raid a home on Addington Drive in Red Deer late Wednesday afternoon.
A neighbourhood woman said a police officer in a T-shirt came to her door and told her to lock the doors and windows and stay in the basement.
However, she managed to see officers take a battering ram and smash open the front door of the home at 92 Addington Drive. The door was left hanging from the shattered frame.
One man was taken into custody after the raid by Red Deer RCMP’s drug and Emergency Response teams about 5 p.m., said RCMP media liaison Kathe DeHeer.
Police cruisers blocked off Addington and a back alley as close to a dozen police officers took their places around the home on one of the main routes through Anders. The road was reopened about 5:30 p.m.
DeHeer said at the scene that police had only just begun searching the home and there was no word on whether anything had been found. A police dog team was also on scene.
“At this point in time they could be here for hours,” she said. Further information is not expected until today.
The well-kept home looks no different than any other on the street except for the front window facing the street. It appeared a couple of flexible tubes were ventilating through a partially open window that was stuffed with a quilt to keep out the wind. Neighbours said the strange setup had been there all winter. A screen on a basement window was also partially torn out.
Almost an hour later, one neighbour was still feeling the affects of the drama that had played out nearby. “I’m shaking,” she said, with her four-year-old daughter at her side.
The home was rented out to five or six young men, who had lived there about 10 months.
“They were like the quietest neighbours. You wouldn’t hear a peep from them.”
The only time the owner, who lives out of province, had to be called was when the tenants didn’t tend to the grass cutting.
The neighbour said police had also raided the same home around March 2007.
She hopes the current residents don’t stick around.
“I want these guys gone. No more rentals.”
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com