Police car strikes Wheaton home

Josie Embree was asleep in an upstairs bedroom of her Wheaton home when she was startled early Thursday morning by the sound of "a huge crash."

"To be honest, I thought the china cabinet fell over," Embree said. "When we came out, my daughter started screaming that there was a car in the house."

Not just any car, it turned out, but a Wheaton squad car.

Authorities say a veteran police officer was on patrol about 4 a.m. when the car she was driving left the road and smashed through the front door of Embree's house on the 100 block of Brighton Drive on the city's south side.

"The front end of the car went into the front door," Deputy Chief Tom Meloni said.

The squad car traveled between a bush and tree, over the front step and came to a stop several feet inside the foyer. The front door and part of the surrounding wall were knocked over.

Embree said there was so much debris that she initially didn't realize a police car was involved.

"From the way it seems, she came right through and just came right up," Embree said.

The officer checked to see if everyone was OK. No one was injured.

When the Embrees mentioned they were calling 911, the officer told them help already was on the way.

Police were at the home by the time the family got downstairs. Wheaton firefighters and paramedics also responded.

While two workers repaired the front entrance on Thursday afternoon, police were trying to piece together what caused the officer to drive off the road.

"Preliminarily, we have determined that sleep could have been a factor," Meloni said.

He said the officer was working a shift that begins at 10:40 p.m. and ends at 7 a.m.

There are no indications drugs or alcohol were involved, he said.

Meloni described the officer only as a "veteran" and would provide no other details of her service record.

He said the department will conduct an internal investigation.

"If there was violation of law or department procedure regarding driving, then disciplinary action is applied," he said.

Embree said she's just happy everyone is fine. She was getting flooded with phone calls after her daughter wrote about the crash on Facebook.

"Our family in Europe is calling me now," she said.