JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla. – A Jacksonville Beach family had a close call after a driver slammed into their home and took off.
It happened early Saturday morning on Ninth Avenue North off of Beach Boulevard. The SUV crashed into a bedroom where an 86-year-old woman was sleeping.
The family calls it a miracle that their loved one wasn’t hurt, or worse. Pieces of their home were left scattered in the street, and they’re hoping police catch the person responsible.
The signs of what happened here in the middle of the night are still obvious: chunks of grass missing from the front yard, a broken chain-link fence and a gaping hole in the front of the house covered up with a tarp.
“She said ‘What happened?’ I said, ‘Nan, somebody ran through your bedroom with a truck’ and she was just kind of disoriented because I woke her up and I said, ‘Come on, let’s get out of here’ because I didn’t know what was going to happen, so I took her out through the hole in the wall," said the homeowner, Mike Marcum.
Marcum heard the loud boom and quickly saw that an SUV had crashed into his mother-in-law’s bedroom.
Her bed was forced across the room without waking her or hurting her.
“I couldn’t believe she wasn’t hurt either, because I mean, there was like, bookcases and stuff by that wall, and none of it hit her at all," said Marcum.
By the time Marcum made it outside to see what caused the destruction, he says the SUV was speeding away.
“I’m a little angry, because you want someone to get caught that did something like this. Because, you know, our insurance is going to have to pay for it, you know? And I think that their insurance should have to pay for it, not us," Marcum said.
The 86-year-old woman only has a few scratches on her neck and otherwise is doing fine.
The insurance adjuster is coming tomorrow, and the family is asking anyone with information on the driver to call police.