Charlotte Harbor homeowners describe ordeal after car crashes into home while they slept

Author: Camila Pereira Writer: Elyssa Morataya
Published: Updated:

Charlotte Harbor homeowners are cleaning up the mess left behind after a truck crashed into their home.

Around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday, a car traveling around a band known to the locals as “Dead Man’s Curve” on Harborview Road crashed into the residence.

The homeowners, Stephanie Lawerence and Tracy Hoffman, told WINK News that they are not surprised something like this happened in their neighborhood.

“I woke up to what sounded like a small crash in my home, I sent [Tracy] out thinking that something fell, or maybe somebody was in the house,” said Lawerence. “He opens the door to the utility room and sees our car in the utility room and then comes out the front door and sees a red truck upside down.”

The driver of the truck, 39-year-old Justin Lee Pullen was visibly drunk behind the wheel of the car. said Hoffman. His interaction with Hoffman after the crash left the homeowners fuming.

“He climbed out of the truck with a cigarette in his mouth and asked me if I had a light,” said Hoffman, “[I was] really mad. Someone just destroyed my life in the middle of the night while I was sleeping.”

Pullen now faces charges of DUI property damage.

Lawerence said the crash nearly killed them, and it’s only a matter of time before something like this happens again in their neighborhood.

“We live on what they call ‘Dead Man’s Curve,’ and there are accidents out here several times a year, a couple of fatalities, and a motorcyclist [who] lost his leg,” said Hoffman.

Hoffman said that having cars in their front lawn seems like a regular occurrence these days.

With the county’s plans for road expansion, the homeowners are worried that the next time something like this happens, they won’t be so lucky.

The new road will only be 10 feet away from their bedroom window.

“It’s a matter of when, not if it’s going to happen,” said Lawerence. “It’s something that’s on my mind every day when I come home.”

The homeowners said a renovation company has helped to board up the damage, but they now face thousands of dollars in damage and repairs to get their home fixed.

Pullen has since bonded out of jail on $1,000 bond.

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