Tow Truck Smashes Into VA House

Here's the story from the Virginian-Pilot:

NORFOLK

After attending a funeral on Saturday, James Fennell stopped at his house in Lamberts Point to change clothes.

He put the Shih Tzu he got a week ago into a crate, moved the dog from the den to another room and left, maybe around 7 p.m.

About an hour later, a flatbed tow truck smashed through the side wall of the house at 38th Street and Elkhorn Avenue, stopping in the middle of the den.

Frantic family members wondered if Fennell was inside. He rushed back when his aunt called him to tell him a truck was sitting in the house he rents. He was so nervous he got sick.

“Right where that truck is is where I sleep at,” Fennell said Saturday night as he stared at the wreckage . “I’m just speechless.”

The truck driver was headed south on Elkhorn, went up a curb and into a yard, then went through the intersection, into Fennell’s yard, and into his house.

Firefighters loaded the driver into an ambulance to take him to a hospital. His name and condition were not available.

They got the dog out OK.

Police are investigating what caused the driver to crash. They did not immediately release any information.

Fennell does not have renter’s insurance. He planned to stay with family while he figured out what would happen to the house.

Fennell has lived there for about four years. With the truck planted smack inside the den, it was easy to consider how it could have been much worse.

“I had left like 30 or 40 minutes ago,” he said. “I had just left.”