Police knocked on the door of a grieving West Lothian mum and claimed to have her drunk son in the back of their van - 15 months after her own son died.
Tracey Hadlow lost her 20-year-old son Nathan after an accidental overdose in April 2021. He had taken street Valium, cocaine and methadone.
The 53-year-old from Deans, Livingston, said she was left distressed on July 3 this year, after answering the door to two police officers who brought an ‘intoxicated’ stranger to her house, claiming he was her dead child.
She told the Daily Record she felt like she was reliving the moment officers chapped her door on the night Nathan died.
The mum-of-three said: “When I think about it now, I want to cry. It was awful. When Nathan died, police came to the house late at night to tell me they had found his body. I felt like I was reliving that nightmare all over again.”
Tracy said she was awoken by cops banging on her door at 3.45am to tell her they had her son - before the officers realised they were at the wrong house.
The NHS Clinical Support worker added: “The officer told me my boy was in the van. My boy is dead and my other son was sitting in the living room.
“When I told the officer the situation, he just stared at me with a vacant look. He obviously knew then that he had made a mistake, but he wasn’t quick to apologise.”
Tracy has spent the last year mourning the sudden loss of her boy and said having police back at her house brought back an abundance of emotions she has been desperately trying to cope with.
She explained: “It was a distressing situation which brought back all the emotions I felt when I found out my boy died last year. It was not okay. I felt extremely heartbroken all over again.
“How could the police make such a horrific mistake?
“They could have taken him to any house, but it was mine they came to. I’m just so angry and upset at them for putting me through this.”
She has previously said she believes Nathan could be alive today if Scotland’s drug laws had changed a year earlier, claiming he never received any help or support for his addiction issues.
She said: “I firmly believe that if Nathan got the help he needed from the right professionals he could be here today.”
She said she was shocked to find out the number of people who died from drug misuse in Scotland last year had fallen by just one percent and said more needs to be done to combat the major issue.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “ A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “While dealing with a concern for a person incident, officers attended an incorrect address on Harburn Avenue, Livingston at 4am on Sunday, 3 July, 2022.
“We acknowledge the upset that this caused to the householder and officers have apologised in person.”
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