Few FBI blunders of late likely compare to what just happened in Boston last week, when Federal Agents on a training mission wound up barging into the wrong hotel room and inadvertently interrogating an innocent hotel guest who was sleeping for nearly 45 minutes.
The bizarre mistake, outlined by NPR last week, occurred during a training exercise at a Boston hotel.
An innocent guest was sleeping at his room at the Revere Hotel when Federal Agents began banging on his door “and demanding to be let in”, the report says. Agents then handcuffed the innocent man, isolated him in the shower and interrogated him for more than 45 minutes before ever realizing they had made a mistake.
Lt. Col. Mike Burns, spokesperson for U.S. Army Special Operations Command, commented on the blunder: “First and foremost, we’d like to extend our deepest apologies to the individual who was affected by the training exercise.”
The U.S. Army Special Operations Command was in tow with the FBI conducting “essential military training”. Burns continued: “The training was meant to enhance soldiers’ skills to operate in realistic and unfamiliar environments. The training team, unfortunately, entered the wrong room and detained an individual unaffiliated with the exercise.”
The FBI-Boston Division said they were “mistakenly sent” to the wrong room “based on inaccurate information”, NPR wrote. The man in the hotel room was in his 30s and was an employee of Delta Air Lines.
Boston Police were eventually called to the building and officers confirmed it was a training exercise that had gone wrong.
Delta said it was looking into “reports of an alleged incident in Boston that may involve Delta people.” They added: “We have nothing further to share at this time other than to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring the safety and well-being of our people.”
“The safety of civilians in [the] vicinity of our training is always our number one concern,” Burns continued.
