A HOMEOWNER had a lucky escape when a car came hurtling down a hill and smashed into his front door in Balcombe.
Vandals released the handbrake and sent the driverless Peugeot 306 Turbo smashing into Bob Bardwell's house in Newlands.
Former soldier Bob was sitting just feet away in his lounge watching the television when the walls shook at 11pm last night (July 16).
He said: "It sounded like a bomb going off.
"I was watching TV and suddenly there was an almighty crash. I've got this enormous chimney above and I thought it was that coming down because the picture went off the TV at the same time."
The car ran more than 50 metres from the road across the green outside Bob's house, then the footpath where it clipped the kerbstone and took off to fly through his front hedge and crash on to his lawn before careering into the house.
It wiped out the former Army Physical Training Corps warrant officer and retired professional golfer's satellite dish and dismantled several bricks and potted plants but narrowly missed a gas pipe.
Bob added: "It was pitch dark so I couldn't see anything. The first time I saw the car was when I opened the front door and the infra red security light came on."
The scene of the damage at Balcombe
The car, which belonged to a neighbour, was targeted by vandals who smashed the driver's window and released the handbrake.
Police arrived at the scene shortly afterwards and forensic experts were due this morning to take fingerprints. A car recovery firm was trying to work out how to get the vehicle out of the garden which sits at the bottom of a steep hill.
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