Dallas

Crash Sends Tire Flying More Than 700 Feet Into Dallas Apartment

Couple shaken when tire crashes into apartment Tuesday afternoon

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A crash scene in Dallas had even veteran police investigators shaking their heads saying they’d never seen anything like it before.

A tire thrown from the bizarre crash hundreds of feet away came within inches from slamming into a family sitting in their living room inside their apartment on South Lamar Street.

In an instant Samantha Hardeman went from watching Netflix on her couch with a girlfriend to crawling to safety.

“I’m still kind of freaking out about it,” she said.

Her home, she thought, was under attack Tuesday at about 1 p.m.

“I’m like, 'OK, we’re at war right now. They sent a missile down here or someone’s shooting,'” said Hardeman with a laugh. “In my head I thought I was getting assassinated.”

She turned to Facebook Live to show the bizarre scene showing the gaping hole above her couch, insulation and pieces of her building were strewn inside.

The tire knocked out her power, destroyed a television and broke a window.

“We were on the couch, so I had a head full of rocks,” she said.

“I was in shock,” she said. “It’s just a freak accident that you never think would ever happen to you.”

Especially considering where it came from.

“The police officer said in his 25 years of doing traffic investigations he’s never seen anything like this,” she said. “They said the tire flew over 700 feet -- 702 feet, to be exact, into my wall.”

A pickup truck on the Cedar Crest Boulevard overpass above crashed, sending two tires flying. Hardeman said police told her one tire went over a warehouse and into her home.

The damage is patched up for now.

Hardeman believes her sister, who died in a car crash in 2001, was protecting her that day.

“The police even said a few centimeters lower, the tire probably would’ve landed on top of us,” she said. “Then it would’ve been a different investigation.”

NBC 5 has requested information from the Dallas police regarding the crash and more about the driver who was hurt but has not been publicly identified.

Hardeman said the detective assigned to her case informed her speed and possibly alcohol may have been factors in the crash.

Hardeman said she does not have renters insurance and is looking to see if the driver of the truck has insurance to help pay for the damage to her home.

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