A Palmerston couple got the fright of their lives when an unwanted intruder crashed into their night

A frightening bang broke the silence in Palmerston during the week. Read what caused it.

Grey car crash April 2025

Denise Vincent and Kevin Atkinson got the fright of their lives last week when a vehicle breached the front garden of their Gray home.

The couple were sitting down to dinner at about 6.30pm on Wednesday night when a tremendous “bang” shattered the evening ambience.

“Kevin and I were sitting in our lounge room having dinner and a chat and all of a sudden we heard this massive bang,” Denise said.

“We flew up out of our chairs, we raced to the front door but couldn’t see anything and Kevin had a look out the back and couldn’t see anything there.

The vehicle rests uneasily on the rockery.

“Then I went to the front door and sort of angled myself because I could see the tail end of a police car on the corner.

“I went and found some keys and opened the house, raced out the front and there was a car sitting there at the end of the veranda.”

The couple were in the living area at the other end of the house, with the vehicle missing colliding with the master bedroom.

Tree loppers were at the Gray property the following day.

Denise has lived at the home on the corner of Raffles Road and Bacon Street for 35 years and Kevin for almost 20, and the garden was designed to ensure maximum safety on the corner block.

“The rocks were put there because it helps if anything like this ever happened, and it obviously did and the rocks stopped the car naturally. If we hadn’t had the rocks the woman would have been sleeping with us at night.”

Social media commentary posted on the evening of the incident suggested a woman had fled the scene and had been detained within 30-minutes of the smash.

Carpentaria palms that also helped to block the impact of the Nissan Dualis as it hurtled toward the house had to be removed, but aside from tyre marks on the naturestrip there was little evidence 24-hours later that the crash had occurred.

“The car had actually pushed a lot of the palms over,” Denise said. “When the tow truck pulled the car out they were leaning against the fence and side of the house, so it’s best to get rid of them.

“Kevin’s out there doing final touch-up to his yard. He doesn’t like a messed up yard.”