Vehicle crashes into home on East Polk Avenue

Dec. 10--Claudia Cavalier and her husband, Donny Johnson, decided to go Christmas shopping about six hours before the sun rose Sunday morning because Cavalier couldn't sleep.

While they were on their early morning excursion, a dark blue sedan crashed into their bedroom wall at their house at 1605 E. Polk Ave. about 2:30 a.m. They rushed home after their roommate, John Rich, called to tell them the news. The couple came home to find their bedroom wall caved in, exposed electrical wires and their art desk with air brush equipment broken across the room with much of the desk on top of their bed.

"I'm really thankful we weren't here," said Cavalier, 25. "Because we were already awake, we felt like we should get out of the house. It was on a whim, and it was my husband's idea. It's one of those things -- it's a lucky coincidence that all of this lined up to make sure we weren't home when that happened ... A firefighter said if we had been anywhere close to that desk, we definitely would have gone to the hospital."

The Victoria Police Department and Victoria Fire Department responded to the crash, said Lt. Clay Fetters, with the Victoria Police Department. The driver of the vehicle that struck the house was picked up by a white truck and left the scene. Fetters said officers are continuing to investigate the crash, and no one has been arrested. No injuries were reported.

Fetters said more information would be available Monday.

Rich, 27, said he was on the other side of the house when the crash happened. He went outside and saw the vehicle partially pinned in the bedroom. The driver reversed out of the house before his vehicle died in the yard. Then another person came in a white truck to check on the driver to see if he was OK.

"I yelled out to (the driver of the blue sedan) not to take off. He got out of the car and stumbled around a little bit and looked disoriented," Rich said. "He left (the vehicle) in the yard with the battery and the lights and everything still on. He couldn't get it to start back up. His friend took him in the truck, and they fled."

Shortly after, the driver's wife came to the scene to talk to police and provide insurance information, Cavalier said.

The crash didn't compromise the structure of the house, Cavalier said, because her bedroom was added onto the structure. Sunday afternoon, her husband and their roommate went to buy wood to cover up the hole in the wall. The sedan struck their van before it went into the house, which Cavalier said probably took some of the force and kept the vehicle from doing worse damage.

The couple have six cats and are cat-sitting one for a friend. When they left to go shopping, four of the cats were in their room. The couple and their roommate searched for the cats for hours to make sure they were OK. None were injured, but they were shaken up, Rich said.

"We had to spend a good four to five hours to track down cats from the house and in the yard from this," Rich said. "One of (the cats) ripped into the drywall of the bathroom in order to try to get away from it ... We had to pull out the cat from under the bathtub after the cat tore a hole in the wall."

Kathryn Cargo reports on business and agriculture for the Victoria Advocate. She may be reached at kcargo@vicad.com or 361-580-6328. Follow her on twitter @kathryncargo.

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