WASHINGTON (DC News Now) — So far this year, car thefts in D.C. are up by a staggering 116%.
One man saw that statistic firsthand as a stolen car crashed right in front of his home on M Street SE near the intersection of Branch Avenue on Sunday morning.
Arnoldo Jiménez was helping his wife put their two small kids into their SUV Sunday morning when he heard an engine revving.
“I saw that he was driving directly towards our other vehicle and I told my wife to move out the way because she was putting the baby in the SUV and I didn’t know if when he hit this car, if it was going to propel him into the other car,” Jiménez said. “I immediately ran to the street yelling ‘write down his license plate or remember the license plate’ he looked us in the face, backed up, took off up M Street.”
This is the second time in two months that a car has crashed in front of Jiménez’s house.
“We came out one morning in February again, to run errands and my wife said somebody hit the car,” Jiménez said. “They hit it overnight. We didn’t hear anything. No one stopped or anything.”
The speed bumps added a year and a half ago don’t stop every dangerous driver, he said.
After the damage left Sunday, Jiménez said his car may be totaled.
“He hit so hard it’s up here in the front. The light is up here in the front,” Jiménez said.
Despite what’s happened to his car, Jiménez is much more concerned about protecting something much more important to him, he said.
“I no longer feel safe. I no longer feel safe to have my children even running out here,” Jiménez said.
The white Hyundai Tuscon was stolen from Northwest on Saturday. It crashed in Southeast on Sunday and was recovered in Northeast on Tuesday, according to D.C. police.
