At 10:30 at night the woman who lives in the Visalia apartment is usually asleep. She's a paraplegic and needs help getting around. Her neighbors say she is lucky she wasn't in bed when a car came crashing through her bedroom Tuesday night.
Action News obtained exclusive home video of the damaging scene Tuesday night. A stolen car crashed into the bedroom of a downstairs apartment at around 10:30 p.m.
Mitchell Gargano said his wife is 8-months pregnant and at first he was worried the loud noise had something to do with his wife going into labor. "She woke me out of bed and I thought she was having a contraction, but it was a lot bigger than a contraction!"
Gargano said the woman who lives next door is a paraplegic and has a nurse who helps her get into bed at night. Usually she's sleeping by 10:30 but last night he says she had just finished taking a bath when the car slammed into her bedroom wall.
"The front of the car the fender of the car was laying where her head lays, said Gargano, "it's scary to think what would have happened if she was in that bed."
Farmersville Police say they had attempted to pull over 19-year-old Alex Requejo for driving a stolen vehicle. Instead, investigators say he took off -- leading officers on a high speed chase into Visalia.
"They advised us that there was a Farmersville Police Department pursuing a stolen vehicle westbound on Caldwell and it was entering the city limits," said Sgt. Gary Williams with the Visalia Police Department.
As Requejo tried to turn from Caldwell onto Court, he lost control and plowed into the apartment complex striking several large rocks and a sign pole along the way.
Firefighters also found several tiny kittens under one of the car's tires. They survived.
Wednesday the apartment is boarded up with several two-by-fours standing in place of a concrete pillar. "I'm just very grateful that everything turned out okay and nobody was hurt," said Gargano.
The suspect is facing several serious charges including driving a stolen vehicle and evading a police officer. It's unknown when the woman's apartment will be fixed and ready for her to move back in.
