Sorry, wrong house: Drug squad's sledgehammer raid nets a dinner lady drinking tea

It was 6.30am when half a dozen policemen with sledgehammers smashed the window of the red-brick terrace house and piled in to find their target.

Instead of junkies crazed on crack, however, they found school dinner lady Kathleen Oldham sitting in her dressing-gown enjoying an early-morning cup of tea.

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At that point they realised they had blundered.

"Sorry, love, wrong house", they said and immediately departed leaving a female colleague behind to make a more effusive apology.

Miss Oldham was presented with a bouquet of flowers and workmen arrived promptly to repair her front window.

Yesterday Greater Manchester Police issued a public apology to the 58-year-old dinner lady over the bungled raid on her home in Bolton.

"As part of an ongoing operation to target drug-related crime, officers entered the wrong house," said a spokesman.

"Officers will be reviewing what went wrong in order to make sure this doesn't happen again."

Miss Oldham's was one of a number of addresses targeted by police in a series of raids.

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A neighbour, who asked not be named, said: "It was about half past six and I was up with my son. I heard voices and I was half asleep so I came to the window to have a look.

"Then I heard the smashing glass and I saw the riot van with all the officers in it."

Police said they had made 21 arrests, including two women, following a series of early-morning raids across the town on suspicion of supplying or being concerned in the supply of Class A drugs.

Officers also seized cash, two cars, a firearm and drugs.

The operation follows months of undercover work by officers acting on information from locals.

Police are keen that the case of mistaken identity does not stop members of the public helping tackle drug crime.

Superintendent Andy Durkin said: "The repercussions of drug use are huge, ranging from people feeling threatened walking along their own streets and children having to play near discarded needles to an increase in burglary and robbery by addicts funding their habit.

"There is no place for drugs on the streets of Bolton and this action has taken us one step closer to this."

Last year, armed officers from the Greater Manchester force raided a house in Dukinfield after reports of a gun-toting figure in the sitting room.

It turned out to be a lifesize figure of the video game character Lara Croft, armed with her trademark outsize pistols. A computer shop owner had taken it home to sell on eBay.