Middletown Police Chief David Birk said that after talking with Trenton police, detectives learned the Pontiac had been stolen from Trenton. There was no police pursuit at the time of the crash, he said.
Acting Trenton Police Chief Dave Rosenfelder said the resident realized the Pontiac Torrent was missing from his Heritage Drive residence and reported it stolen at about 4:53 a.m.
“Middletown contacted us. They put two and two together,” Rosenfelder said.
Josh Ingram had just woken up for work for his job at UC Heath in West Chester Twp. when he heard what he first thought as a thunder clap, “but then I thought it sounded like a bomb going off or something because it was so loud and people were screaming.”
Ingram’s family car, a silver Dodge Caravan, that was parked on the street was hit and totaled in the crash. The couple has three small children.
“My wife (Jessica) just started bawling. That was our only car. That was the only way we have to get around,” Ingram said.
Neighbor Rhonda Sowder said the Pontiac hit her house, causing damage to the front porch.
The Ingram family has established a GoFundMe account to help raise money to replace the wrecked vehicle.
“We are now without a vehicle and are worried about how we are going to continue from here … we have three kids and now have no way of getting my husband to work,” Jessica Ingram said on her GoFundMe fundraiser. “Please any help at this point is life changing.”
A family member told the Journal-News the teens are friends. The 16-year-old suffered a broken leg and head trauma, but remains in the hospital and is alert and talking, according to family. The 18-year-old suffered a broken neck and brain trauma and remains sedated in the hospital, family said.
Birk said the Butler County Sheriff’s Office Serious Traffic Accident Reconstruction Investigation Team is investigating the crash. On Wednesday, a Middletown detective was serving a search warrant at a city impound lot for data from the SUV the teens crashed.
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