‘Loud Crashes,’ Cloud Of Ash Delay Meal Pickup Plows Into Garage, Pushes Couple’s Car Into Freezer

Two Valley grandparents couldn’t decide if they were hexed or blessed.

A small pickup had just ripped through their garage door, smashing into the Chevy Citation inside. That drove the Citation into an upright freezer, planting it about an inch into the wall.

But no one was hurt, the off-course pickup just missed two large evergreens, and it also managed to miss a gas meter and a support pole.

“Why me?” Edith Clegg lamented. Then she smiled. “We were lucky it wasn’t worse. Geez.”

At about 7:30 p.m., Edith and Joseph Clegg were inside their East Cataldo home when they heard “three loud crashes.” Then the fireplace spewed a cloud of ash into their living room - the attached garage was on the other side of the wall.

The pickup was heading west on Cataldo when the driver suddenly lost control, just squeaking between the two trees flanking the side of the Cleggs’ yard.

Two teenage boys were inside the truck, said sheriff’s deputy Mark Stewart. They hadn’t been drinking, he said. “It was just a young, inexperienced driver.”

Outside, branches and pine needles were strewn everywhere. A blue tarp rippled where the garage door once hung.

“You can see his tire marks over there where he left the road,” said Stewart, pointing to the street.

Inside, it was a mess. The Citation’s trunk was pushed into a “V.” Clocks, a plant, a box of Wheat Thins and other shrapnel littered the car’s hood.

Joseph Clegg tried to figure out how to close the wrinkled freezer door. And if the humming freezer would ever shut off. Two neighbors watched.

“I might be able to salvage some of it,” he shrugged. Both he and his wife seemed to take it pretty well. But it did throw them off schedule.

“I was just gonna sit down to dinner,” he said.

, DataTimes