The home of a Whangārei man in his 80s has been destroyed after a car travelling at high speed flew off the road, sailed over a neighbour’s unit and crashed through his roof.
The man’s distraught partner said he was in hospital at the time and only found out this morning.
The car smashed through a barrier on Mill Rd and landed in the man’s living room on Millers Lane just after 11pm last night, completely destroying the unit.
Police said it was incredibly fortunate no one was killed.
Senior Sergeant Rene Rakete said officers were called to the corner of Mill Rd and Millers Ln about 11pm, after the car hit a fence at high speed then landed on a roof.
Police would likely be dealing with a death if the owner had been home at the time, he said.
The car eventually came to a stop in front of the unit, with both the property and the vehicle significantly damaged, Rakete said.
The driver fled and a police dog was unable to track anyone from the car.
Police were, however, “following lines of enquiry”.
The man’s partner said police told her the car was stolen and the driver fled on foot.
The officer estimated the car was travelling at 180km/h when it left the road, she said.
“It’s obviously uninhabitable… This is his home, it’s heartbreaking.”
She said he had lived in the brick-and-tile unit, in the suburb of Kensington, for the past nine years.
She told RNZ she was waiting for an insurance assessor to come from Auckland, and she was trying to find a builder to make what was left of his unit safe.
Reportedly, the only damage to the first unit was a fence paling through the garage roof.
By Peter de Graaf and Susan Edmunds of rnz.co.nz
