Blog Author
toni
(view profile)
 


On July 18, 2005 - looooooong story : )

Category: Random bulletins from my brain | Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:26 pm

When we bought this house the attached garage had been converted to a room. This means that on the other side of front wall of this room is the driveway and on the driveway sits our cars and on the in side of wall is where my computer desk sat.
Also, in the summer on days when Amanda doesn't have school or work, I let Randy take my car to work therefore his pickup truck is sitting in the driveway. This truck is a 1970 Dodge, not made of tin or fiberglass as the newer vehicles are but of good hard to damage steel.

On July 18,2005 just before 2 p.m. I had checked my email and done a little work on the rEcycle list I am a co-owner of then left the front of the room, going to the back part of the room where my craft area is located. I was sitting at my table minding my own business when I heard a really loud roar, a screech of tires trying to catch up with the speed of the engine and then a really loud crash.

I grabbed the cell phone and ran out front expecting to find a horrible crash in the street. What I found was a green Ford Contour pulling away from the backend of my husbands pickup truck....and the front of the pickup truck sitting about 2 feet inside the house....I had not even noticed the bulging wall before I headed out side.
I called 911 to report it and as I was talking to the police dispatcher the boy who had been in the car got out and went into his house across the street. A young girl was standing there screaming at him. He came back out, they got in the car and drove away as I was giving the dispatcher the license plate number.

To shorten this story down a bit.....
The girl was an unlicensed 14 yr old from a town about 20 miles from here. She had taken the car keys out of her Mom's purse and when Mom left for work she took the car for a joy ride. As her story goes...she found herself in front of the house across the street when she had car troubles (sounds fishy to me) Anyway, the 16 yr old unlicensed boy there and his friend decided to play "white knight" and help her. They pushed the car into their drive way, the 16 yr old started the engine...his story goes, he put it in reverse but the throttle was stuck full open and he couldn't stop it so it raced backwards out of his driveway into ours and crashed into the back bumper of the pickup.

When they drove away, they got down around the corner where the boy got out and ran back home thru the alley and broke into their house to hide.....like I didn't know who he was and where he lived??? After his Mom got home from work, they came over and he apologized and that is when he realized that the house had been damaged. The police officer came back to talk with Mom and son, they being hispanic Mom was yelling at the son in Spanish and didn't realize that the officer could understand what she said. He told us later that she was really giving me the riot act for being so stupid. But as soon as Dad got home, we never heard another word from them. Our insurance company told us that Dad refused to accept the fact that his son had caused the damage and put all the blame on the girl.

Over the next two months we found out that the car was uninsured and the people across the street refused to acknowledge any responsibilty or even report it to their insurance.
Our auto insurance paid for the damages to the truck, there weren't many since it is made of steel...minus a $250 deductible. Our home owners insurance paid for the rebuilding of this room. The Mom is paying $100 a month to our insurance companies to reimburse them.....the house repairs alone were $7800 so she will be paying on that forever.

Almost two months to the day after waiting for the insurance company to send us a contractor we felt we could trust, the rebuilding of the room was completed. Only took them from 8 a.m. that Monday to 3p.m. Wednesday.
Because the paneling that was on the walls couldn't be matched (it was 30 yrs old), they took it all down and we asked for regular walls (sheetrock,texture and paint). The ceiling had to be redone too and since the opening between this room and the living room had trim that had to be taken down, that damaged the ceiling in the livingroom and one wall there... the livingroom ceiling was completely redone and the whole room repainted.

The funny thing about this is, when the construction crew tore out the front wall, they found the original garage door still there. The previous home owner had her son do the work, he nailed some sheets of foam to the inside of the garage door and covered the whole thing with paneling. The demolition crew had a good laugh at that.

After the room was finished Randy built us a book case 8' long and 8' tall and mounted it to the front wall.....I do not want to be sitting there again. My computer is now in the middle of the room instead. We had been hoping to redo this room someday but it just never got to the top of our long to do list.


This blog entry has been viewed 629 times
You're reading one of many blogs on GardenStew.com.
Register for free and start your own blog today.


Comments

 

glendann wrote on Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:48 pm:


Oh my Gosh,That could have been so much worse than it was .Your Guardian Angel was for sure watching over you.




 

jubabe296 wrote on Tue Jul 18, 2006 6:00 pm:


WOW!! Toni!! I would not want to be sitting there anymore either!! The thought of it is very frightening!! The bookcase you described sounds beautiful. The good thing I guess is that you got your room remodeled!! It is so frustrating when people won't take responsibility for their actions!!ARGHHHHH! I wonder if the former owners know their son left the garage door there when he built the room?lol! That must have been a funny shock!!lol!




 

Gardenstew wrote on Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:57 pm:


Eeek what a story Toni. SO glad nobody was hurt and that you got everything settled eventually. I would have found it quite amusing as well to find the garage door still there, it's like sweeping dust under the rug :)




 

Pianolady wrote on Tue Jul 18, 2006 11:30 pm:


Wow, I'm glad no one got hurt. Glad your insurance is making them make payments.




 

wannabe wrote on Wed Jul 19, 2006 3:29 am:


I'm glad you got everything finished. Isn't it irksome when things take so long?





Leave a Comment


Login or register to leave a comment.









Archives All Entries
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
July 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
July 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
July 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
July 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
July 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
July 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
July 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
July 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
July 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
July 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
June 2007
May 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006