Ceres police seek footage of car theft, crash into house

The father of a newborn was just trying to get a good night’s sleep before heading off early Thursday morning to work. So while his wife and baby occupied the master bedroom, he shared his 8-year-old son’s front bedroom.

But the night was brutally interrupted about 2:15 a.m. when a stolen car came crashing through the front wall of their home in the 2400 block of Caswell Avenue, right into the bedroom.

The father, 27, remained hospitalized Friday with two broken legs, a broken back, burns from the heat of the car, cuts, and internal injuries including a punctured lung and a laceration to his liver or a kidney, said Ceres police Lt. Chris Perry.

The son was treated for a broken femur and released. He’s fortunate his injuries weren’t worse, Perry said. “The bedroom door was open, and the way the car impacted, it ejected him out the door of the bedroom” and into the hallway, the lieutenant said. “The dad was pinned up against the wall, while the boy was thrown out of the room. It could have been way worse on him if that door wasn’t open.”

Several hours after the incident, the 2001 Mitsubishi Gallant that crashed into the house – after blowing through the stop sign where Sixth Street T’s into Caswell – was reported stolen, Perry said. Two young Latino males were seen fleeing the scene on foot. Police followed a blood trail from the crash scene to the 2500 block of Caswell, where they suspect another vehicle picked up the pair.

Perry said the Police Department is taking the case “very seriously” and will have officers canvassing the neighborhood this weekend to see whether residents have surveillance camera footage that shows the vehicle’s occupants. Hospitals also have been asked to be on alert for anyone coming in with injuries consistent with the crash, he said.

“There was substantial blood in the vehicle, which we will be processing for DNA,” Perry said. “There was a blood trail that went east on Caswell, but then it stopped, so we were unable to get anything further from that. But it’s probably evident that whoever was in that car has cuts and other injuries. There was blood on the air bags and whatnot.”

The only additional description of the vehicle’s occupants is that one had spiky hair, Perry said.

Investigators visited the Seventh Street home of the person who reported the car stolen, Perry said. It was odd that the keys were in the vehicle, the lieutenant said, but the owner said that because the car was crummy, he frequently left the keys in it. Investigators checked the occupants of the Seventh Street residence for evidence that any had been in the crash, but “nobody was banged up,” Perry said.

Beer containers were found in the Mitsubishi, and while there was beer in the Seventh Street house, it was a different brand, he said.

Anyone with information about the crash is asked to call Officer Keith Kitcher at 209-538-5620 or police dispatch at 209-538-5712. Anonymous tips may be left by calling Crime Stoppers at 866-602-7463 or 209-521-4636.

This story was originally published November 6, 2015 at 12:58 PM with the headline "Ceres police seek footage of car theft, crash into house."