MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – It’s not something you see every day: a car lying upside down on three other vehicles in south Minneapolis. Yet that is the scene where Tom Taggatz came home on Monday morning.
Overnight, a red two-door Nissan lost control and crashed into three of its vehicles on block 4200 of Oakland Avenue South. The driver fled on foot and was not found.
“You never expected to live in the middle of a block for something like this to happen,” said Taggatz.
While Taggatz was ice fishing in the north for a quiet weekend, he was unaware of the commotion at home.
“It was not a good feeling to know that the photos sent to me of my neighbor in that house told me, ‘This is your house,’” said Taggatz.
His house is fine, but three of his vehicles are not. They added up, along with the red Nissan that hit them. Parts of that car are still scattered across his lawn, and even on top of his garage.
It is believed that the car was moving so fast that it hit a hill and got into the air before crashing into the vehicles in the Taggatz driveway.
(credit: Minneapolis Police Department)
“If it wasn’t for the vehicles, my house is here, the living room out front is there, I could easily have, you know, been hurt there,” he said.
The crash happened at approximately 2:30 AM. The driver fled the scene, but neighbors did not call 911 because they did not see the crash. Eydie Campbell, who lives two doors away, said she heard an explosion and thought it was construction work blocks away.
The house rattled. The whole house was shaking it, ”Campbell said. “Wow. I mean if anyone walked away from that, they were lucky.”
Taggatz feels like a victim in this. He got ready to sell one of the cars after spending time and money fixing it. The other belonged to his dead aunt.
“To make something like this happen now is just devastating because I just don’t understand,” said Taggatz. “I haven’t done anything wrong. It’s just a shame things are happening here and there is no accountability. It’s like it’s okay and it’s not okay.”
Minneapolis Police said the vehicle was not reported stolen and registered to a man and his son in Blaine. Taggatz isn’t quite sure yet whether insurance will help him with his losses.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help Taggatz.