A Boston hotel guest was awakened in the middle of the night by federal agents who barged into his room, handcuffed him, threw him into the shower and interrogated him for an hour — before they realized they had entered the wrong room.
FBI and Department of Defense agents stormed the innocent man’s room at the Revere Hotel instead of the correct room where a person role-playing as a suspect as part of a training exercise was staying, local CBS affiliate station WBZ reported.
The agents banged on the door of Room 1505, where the confused hotel guest, a Delta Air Lines pilot, was sleeping around 10 p.m. Tuesday night, and demanded to be let in.
They pushed into the room, handcuffed the pilot and reportedly put him in the shower, according to the station.
Then the agents interrogated the man, said to be in his 30s, for nearly an hour until they realized they had the wrong guy.
The federal agents uncuffed the man and apologized after about 45 minutes of intense interrogation, WBZ reported.
The agents with the FBI Boston division were assisting the Department of Defense in conducting a training exercise at the hotel “to simulate a situation their personnel might encounter in a deployed environment,” the FBI said in a statement to the local station.
“Based on inaccurate information, they were mistakenly sent to the wrong room and detained an individual, not the intended role player,” the statement continued. “Thankfully nobody was injured.”
Hotel security was notified and police and EMS were called to the scene. The pilot refused medical attention, according to a police report obtained by WBZ.
The pilot declined to comment on his horrifying experience when the outlet reached him by phone. He said he needed to speak to his employer before speaking to the media.
Delta said in a statement it was “looking into reports of an alleged incident in Boston that may involve Delta people.”
The FBI Boston Division is reviewing the shocking case of mistaken identity with the DOD “for further action as deemed appropriate.”