Car crashes through garage in Worthington

• Accident

Accident

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WORTHINGTON — Jim Gengler had just cleaned his garage on his home in Miles Drive.

“Jim had just cleaned the garage yesterday,” said Rita Gengler. “He said, ‘This is so clean it echos.’ Now look at this.”

Rita and Jim were awoken early Saturday morning to find a vehicle had hopped the cub, missed a pair of trees, and gone through their garage.

“They took the garage door and that wall out,” Jim said. “Then they backed out and left.”

A neighbor across the street heard the accident and saw the vehicle drive down the street — leaving pieces of drywall behind.

“The policeman beat on our door about 1:30 and we came out here,” Jim said. “The neighbors across the street had already called the police because they heard it.

“Neighbors across the street saw him back out and leave. There was sheetrock up and down the street that fell off his pickup and he drove away.”

Tim Gaul, a Worthington Police Sgt. confirmed Sunday a juvenile male was arrested and charged with a DWI. The incident is still under investigation.

“We did get an arrest for DWI in conjunction with that call,” Gaul said. “We did actually solve who did the hit and run.”

A Ford Escape was in the garage, along with a boat and a snow blower.

“That Escape was sitting right here and that boat and the snowblower and all the other stuff behind there,” Jim said. “There is some damage to the rear (of the vehicle) where I think the garage door opener came down and hit the back bumper of the car. We don’t know how much damage to the boat. The trailer, you can see, the hitch is bent clear off to the right. The show blower is shot. As we get everything cleaned off, then we’ll know more about the boat.”

The hitch on the boat was bent and the snow blower was damaged and one of the tires was popped.

“We just put the boat in there yesterday,” Rita said.

“It had been sitting in the driveway and it would have been fine. But it was going to rain.”

The Genglers have lived on Miles Drive for 17 or 18 years and never expected anything like this to happen.

“Oh my God,” Jim said of his reaction. “I couldn’t believe it. You wake up from a sound sleep and the officer says get out here, Jim, someone ran into your garage. I came out here and looked and the driveway is full of neighbors looking at it. And this is what I see.”

“Neighbors were out in the yard,” Rita said. “Everyone knew it except us.”

While the Genglers weren’t sure about the amount of damage, their insurance agent was already out to the scene Saturday morning.

There were tire tracks leading from the curb through the garage. However, the house next door was spared.

“This part must have stopped him or he got himself stopped,” Jim said.

The garage door was a pile of twisted metal and one of the walls was being cut up and thrown in a truck. A post was put into place for fear of the roof collapsing.

“The roof was down three inches,” Rita said. “That’s why we put up the post because they said it might come down.”

The garage will need major repairs.

“This will all be new,” Rita said. “We just don’t know what kind of structural damage there could be up in the rafters. That guy must have been traveling like a son of a gun.”

For the Genglers, the timing of the incident couldn’t have been at a worse time.

“We were supposed to be leaving for Arizona in about a week for the winter,” Rita said.

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Coordinator Aaron Hagen may be reached at 376-7323.

Tags: news, car, crashes, garage, worthington