Police are searching for the person responsible for crashing a pickup truck into a Garden Grove home after stealing it from another house nearby.
Officers responded to the 5300 block of Stanford Avenue in Garden Grove, where a truck had crashed into a home around 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to Garden Grove police. The car crashed into the home of the Rivera family, who woke up when the truck crashed into their garage.
Garden Grove police said the blue pickup truck was stolen from a home near the crash.
The owner of the truck was leaving for work and started the ignition before he realized he left his gym bag inside his home, the Rivera family said. He left his car running along the curb in front of his house and went inside to get it.
When he came out, he saw someone driving away in his truck, so he tried using his wife's car to try to follow the driver, the Rivera family said.
"He lost him and he had no idea he crashed here and that guy was looking around and trying to find him," said Patrick Rivera who owns the home. "He couldn't find him so he went back home, called and said 'My car was stolen,' and by that time my wife had already called 911, and they said 'Oh, we know where its at.'"
The garage of the Rivera's home was badly damaged and was being held up by a wooden post Wednesday morning. Building inspectors also had to turn off the water because plumbing was damaged.
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The Rivera family said they are relieved no one was injured.
The driver of the truck jumped over a fence and fled before officers arrived at the scene. Police were still trying to identify and locate the driver Wednesday.
