A MAN is considering leaving his home of almost 40 years after a car crashed through the wall into his front room on Sunday.
Paul Etheridge, 65, was woken by a crash "like a bomb hitting" his home on Grange Road, between Upper Norwood and Thornton Heath, at 4am on Sunday morning.
"It hit with such a force it nearly threw me out of bed. It was like a bomb hitting, it actually lifted me off the bed," said Mr Etheridge.
He went downstairs to discover a blue Audi A4 in his lounge, but the driver had left the scene.
Mr Etheridge said: "It went straight through my next door neighbour's garden and hit my bay full on.
"It's unbelievable the damage to the front room. The radiator exploded and there was water everywhere. Everything made of glass in the room has gone, it looks like a bomb scene.
"If I had been sitting where I usually sit I'd have been dead," he added.
Mr Etheridge bought the house with his wife, who passed away in 2003, 38 years ago. He now lives with his two daughters, both in their 30s.
Police removed the car from the family's lounge at 6am on Sunday and the fire brigade declared the house a dangerous structure. Mr Etheridge had to board up the demolished wall before the gas and electricity could be turned back on and he and his daughters could return to the house.
But this is not the first car crash on Grange Road and Mr Etheridge said the family are considering moving.
"It's heart breaking really. Me and my wife bought the house together. She died in 2003 so I would like to keep it going," he said.
"We've had a couple of walls down and a car upside down in the front garden before.
"It's a nice area and there's a good community feel but you hear the cars going by at night at 60, 70, 80 miles an hour."
Mr Etheridge said insurance companies have cooperated but the house is freezing cold.
"I've lost every comfortable chair I own. I got some new slippers for Christmas so maybe they'll help," he said.
"It's decimated me. We've just got Christmas out of the way, I'm so fed up of it all," he added.
Mr Etheridge said police, the fire brigade and the council came to the scene. He said police informed him the car was registered as stolen.
