'By the Grace of God' No One Was Killed When Car Drove Into House

None of the five people who live in the home at 199 S. Linden were injured Tuesday night when a white Volvo plowed through their living room.

"By the grace of God we all went upstairs to bed about 15 to 20 minutes earlier," said Larry Norton, who lives in the home with his son, his fiance, her daughter and her 93-year-old mother. "If anybody had been sitting on the couch, or sitting on the chair, they would have died."

Norton, who has lived in the home for 25 years, said at about 11:30 or 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26, he was just starting to fall asleep when he heard a "big bang" and the whole house shook. They came down to the landing of the bi-level house and saw a white car pulling out of the living room.

"The car was almost entirely inside the house," he said. "It was almost to the back wall."

His son ran out the front door wearing only pants and saw the car back out of the house and head toward him. He turned back inside for a moment, then ran out after the vehicle yelling.

Norton said the vehicle tore across the front lawn, crossed the street, drove between trees on the other side of Linden and through the neighbors' lawns, then disappeared down the street.

Police followed the trail of car parts and leaking fluids to a driveway on Poplar, just a block west of Linden, where the vehicle was parked, Norton said. The suspect has been apprehended, but police have not released a name.

"We have radiator fluid and oil and car parts in the living room. His tires left marks in the pavement, maybe from blown tires," he said.

Norton said he and his family plan on having Thanksgiving dinner as planned.

"Dinner should be OK," he said. "We'll just have to put up a card table or something. The dining room table and chairs were destroyed. The love seat was broken in half. We got the OK from the insurance company to clean up the house."

The restoration company that boarded up the home was on the scene Wednesday morning adding tarps both inside and outside the house to help stop the frigid wind from blowing inside.

"The board-up company, the police and fire department were fantastic," Norton said.

He said the magnitude of what happened has sunken in, and he is just grateful no one was hurt. 

"Thank God the car didn't blow up inside the house," he said.

This article will be updated when more information becomes available.