Child feet away as SUV plows into Palm Bay home
PALM BAY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Clean up crews spent Monday morning removing various debris, like parts of a mailbox and a bumper, from the front lawn of Glenn Whepley's home on Dallam Ave. in Palm Bay. They also put plywood over a mammoth hole left in his house after an SUV plowed into the home.
"Basically, I was in my bed sleeping when I heard a big boom," said Cornell Chambers, a neighbor. When he ran outside, he said he saw the driver of a smashed up Jeep SUV backing out from inside the home. "She didn't even stick around," he said of the driver.
The driver has been identified by police as Paige Oak, 50, of Palm Bay. Investigators said the registered nurse did not hang around to see if anyone inside the home was hurt. They said when her Jeep became stuck in a ditch across the street, she left on foot.
The homeowner said he was turning off the light to his fish tank at the time of the crash. He saw the inside wall of the guest bedroom blast into hallway. His 10-year-old son's bedroom is also on the front of the house, right next to the bedroom that was destroyed.
"So I guess just 12 more inches to the left, and you know could have been something worse. He's in bed asleep and everything."
There is no damage to the boy's bedroom, but he was trapped, because the hallway was impacted and firefighters had to get him out through his front bedroom window.
Oak appeared before a judge, who found probable cause to keep her in jail after reading her arrest report. Oak was allegedly on foot a half-mile from the scene when police arrested her. The judge raised her bond to $100,000.