It took Illinois police 40 minutes after detaining an elderly couple at gunpoint to determine they had not just robbed a bank.
By then, the real bank robbers had gotten away.
Oak Park and River Forest police said they kept the couple in handcuffs that long based on the accounts of an eye witness.
It was only until a bank teller told police they had the wrong people that they released Ottis Dugar, 86, and his 67-year-old wife, Demitri.
“If I would’ve made any false move, they would have started shooting,” Dugar told ABC 7.
Ottis is a Korean War veteran with glaucoma and Demitri is diabetic. They said the incident happened after they left their Oak Park Bank. Demtiri was driving Ottis to a Denny’s when they were surrounded by Oak Park and River Forest police, all with guns drawn.
“Yelling, ‘Get out of the car! Put your hands up!’ And when I’m having a bad knee, I cannot get out,” Demitri said. “They asked me, ‘Who’s in the car?’ I said my husband. ‘What’s his name?’ I said it’s Ottis. ‘Does he have a gun in the car?’ I said no, we don’t have any guns. ‘Well if he’s got a gun in the car we’re going to shoot him!'”
The couple said they were handcuffed in separate vehicles, detained for about 40 minutes and ordered out of the cars several times to be identified by bank witnesses.
In a statement the Village of Oak Park said the incident “was a case of mistaken identity based on the initial report of an eye witness to an armed robbery” and that the “witness continued to say the individuals were the ones seen leaving the bank.”
A bank teller finally told the cops they had the wrong suspects.
The real bank robbers were said to be a man in his 60s accompanied by a woman in her 50s but no further description was given.
