HOLLY HILL, Fla. – A Holly Hill woman said police searching for a burglar Monday evening leaned into her 10-year-old daughter’s bedroom window and told her to put her hands up.
Police were responding to a burglary in progress call around 5:30 p.m. when the incident happened. Kailynn DiCicco, 10, says she was cleaning her room when she saw the officer’s gun in her window.
“This window was open and he picks up the blinds right here and he says, 'Put your hands up and get out of the house,” Kailynn said.
Kailyn says then saw the officer’s face realizing he was the same officer who patrols her school in the morning, helping with traffic.
Officers later determined they were at the wrong apartment.
“That’s something that she should never have to experience in her entire life, ever,” Kailynn’s mother Michelle Davis said.
Davis said the Holly Hill Police Department later apologized for the confusion and gave Kailynn a police coin.
Police officials told News 6 the officers were responding to a vacant apartment unit and teens trying to break into a rear window. Officials said there were two open windows at two buildings and the officer head sounds coming from one of them when he leaned in and told the person, who turned out to be 10-year-old Kailynn, to show themselves.
“Officers checked each of the apartments with open ground-level windows, (which) is normal protocol because if a burglar has entered one apartment it would be highly likely that they would enter other units as well," Holly Hill police said in a statement.
Police said they determined no crime occurred after doing a sweep of the complex.
“Luckily nothing significant did happen but there’s all the what if’s and it could have," Davis said.