Family go on holiday, unwittingly stay in drugs den, get raided by police

We've all had some rubbish family holidays, but when it comes to crap Christmas breaks the Winkler family really take the cake.

Dieter Winkler was prepping for a barbecue when ten armed police broke down the doors of the house he and his family were staying in.

The Winklers had rented the property for Christmas in order to be close to family. Unfortunately someone had set up an extensive cannabis farm in one of the bedrooms which the Winklers had been told was locked because of an "electrical" fault.

To add insult to injury the police told the Winklers that the cannabis growing equipment was so poorly wired that the room could have caught fire at any moment.

Mr Winkler said that he had "wondered" about the off-limits room that had lights burning day and night.

The police proceeded to search the Winkler's possessions, break down doors and question the family for five hours.

Mr Winkler told News.co.au:

The cops piled in on a mission. They didn’t know we were innocent, so it wasn’t a friendly reception. My 72-year-old mother was at the home at the time and my little five-year-old niece rocked up mid-raid.

The outraged Mr Winkler added:

We’d just been getting ready for a barbecue.

Unsurprisingly the family weren't able to continue their holiday at the property. Peak season in the area meant that they had to stay an hour away from their family and shell out $2600 (£1246). Airbnb reimbursed the family their initial payment of $1800 (£863) and offered to pay the $2600 for the additional accommodation.

A spokesman for Airbnb told i100.co.uk:

More than sixty million guests have stayed at an Airbnb property and while incidents like this are incredibly rare, we take them very seriously.

There is absolutely no place for this sort of activity on Airbnb and this property has been banned.

We've been in contact with the guest in this situation and will continue to do everything we can to offer our support.