'I thought a bomb had gone off': Lucky escape as car hits house
Newlyweds Colin Tucker and Catia Ochi were fast asleep before a terrible bang woke them in the dead of night.
"I thought a bomb had gone off," Mr Tucker said.
"It was totally unlike anything else you've ever heard, but I never thought it was something like a car coming into the front of the house."
That's exactly what it was.
At 4.38am on Wednesday, a Maroon Ford Falcon careened across a neighbour's yard before smashing into Mr Tucker's office, which is in a room at the front of the couple's house on Deamer Crescent in Richardson.
Mr Tucker and Ms Ochi were out of bed in seconds, but the car had been abandoned and the passenger door was open.
"It looks like whoever it was had done a runner pretty quickly," Mr Tucker said.
Standing outside his home and looking at a large hole in the wall four hours after the accident, Mr Tucker said he was "incredibly relieved" that the crash hadn't happened a day later.
He said his 12-year-old son was due to spend the next week at the house, and often got up early in the morning to play on the computer in Mr Tucker's office.
"Incredibly relieved, not only for the fact that no one was hurt or killed, but because if he was here, he would've been traumatised from something like this happening."
When Fairfax Media arrived to speak to Mr Tucker, he was returning from his neighbours' house, where he had dropped off a heater to keep the neighbours warm after the power went out. He also took his tropical fish next door.
Mr Tucker and Ms Ochi also had no electricity or hot water, and were hoping to get the hole in their wall fixed before leaving for Japan on their honeymoon early next month.
The couple have been cleared to re-enter the house from the back, but are unable to access areas at the front because of the damage.
Mr Tucker's father Jim lives in the granny flat behind the house, and was also asleep at the time.
"I thought it was a thunder clap," he said.
"I just went back to sleep until my son came and told me what had happened."
An ACT Policing spokesperson confirmed police were investigating the crash, which caused “significant structural damage” to the house.
The spokesperson said the cause of the crash was not yet clear.
Anyone with information that could help police, including CCTV or dash-cam footage that shows the car or the diver, is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, or via the Crime Stoppers ACT website.
Information can be provided anonymously, quoting reference number 6283493.