A couple woke up to the sound of a van crashing through their garage in Dallas early Tuesday morning.
Sarah Mechell said she and her husband Joseph Jackson woke to a loud bang.
"I can't really describe the sound," Mechell said. "I woke up out of a dead sleep."
When the couple opened the garage door of their home on Happy Canyon Drive in Dallas they saw a white van with three men and a gun inside. Mechell's 5-year-old Chevy that was parked in the driveway was pushed through the back wall of the garage into the backyard.
"Two of them jumped out and I got the last one," neighbor Stacy McGregor said. He said he chased one of the men and held him until police arrived. "You know that's just what I had to do. I said I wasn't going to let him get away."
"It was so crazy," Mechell said. "My car was not parked in the garage, so he hit it head-on, pushed that and his vehicle all the way in."
The crash took out the garage door, back wall and everything in its path, including the couple's washer and dryer, lawn mower and family photos.
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"It's just gone, just like that," Mechell said. "Something you work hard for and take care of for years can be gone just like that."
Mechell said her car was nearly paid off. Now it's totaled. Her husband's motorcycle was crushed beneath her car.
The couple, who are both Army veterans, moved to Dallas from Tyler three weeks ago. They were still unpacking boxes in the garage when the crash happened.
"We lost so much stuff this morning," Mechell said. "All of our stuff is just everywhere, what's left of it."
The couple didn't have renter's insurance. Now they are looking for a new place to call home before they really got a chance to settle in to this one.
"We'll get through this. We've been through harder things in life," Mechell said, thankful neither she nor her husband was injured or killed. "God was on our side this time. He was looking over us."
Late Tuesday afternoon Dallas police told NBC 5 the suspects told investigators they were being shot at when they lost control of the van and crashed into the garage. Police said the suspects in the case were detained and identified, but not arrested at the time.
