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Posted: Thursday, 05 November 2009 1:43PM
Car crashes into home and lands in basement
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WASHINGTON TWP., Ind. (STNG) -- William Carpenter was at his son's funeral in northwest Indiana on Wednesday when police came to tell him a car had hit his house.
Carpenter assumed it hit the side of his home in the 100 block of Rock Creek Road in Washington Township, just east of Valparaiso, but when he arrived with two grandsons, he found the vehicle had gone fully into the basement, the Post-Tribune is reporting.
"I'm numb. I'm just absolutely, positively numb," Carpenter said while waiting for an insurance agent to arrive. "You just don't know what to think when you come home and find a car in your house. Thank God no one was home and downstairs."
The driver, Roland Lewis, 59, of Valparaiso, was not hurt.
Capt. Larry Sheets of the Porter County Sheriff's Dept. said Lewis' car was going east on Richmond Road when it came to the T-intersection. The vehicle went over the curb and lawns on the east side of Rock Creek, past another house and into the side of Carpenter's home.
Neighbor Jim Peterson said he hadn't heard the accident because he was hammering nails in his basement. However, when he heard the sirens and looked outside the window, he saw the car.
"It was completely in the house," Peterson said. "The taillights were even with the side of the house."
Assistant Chief Dwayne Tate of the Washington Township Fire Department estimated the time of crash as 12:40 p.m.
Emergency workers shut off all utilities to the house, and Tate speculated the Carpenters would need to stay somewhere else.
However, the house's structural integrity seemed intact, even after the car was towed out of the family room basement.
"It just came inches from the main support. If it hit that, (the house) would've collapsed," Tate said.
The Carpenters recently renovated their home of 35 years, putting in new doors, windows, roofing, siding and other items.
"I just spent $40,000 to have it redone," Carpenter said. "It was just perfect, the way that we wanted it."
The police investigation continues.
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Sun-Times Media Wire Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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