PORT ANGELES — Jeff Thayer left a message for the three men in a sports car who wrecked havoc on his two fences and yard.
On the boards, nailed together in a makeshift fashion, he scrawled that the fences would cost him $1,500, the glider swing another $500.
He continued: “Your bumper left behind = Priceless.”
When Thayer heard a clanging crash outside his window late Wednesday night, he found his yard looking as if it had fallen victim to a driver in “The Fast and the Furious.”
A two-door older model sports car had driven through not just one but two of Thayer’s fences at his home on the corner of M and Seventh streets in Port Angeles, he said.
The car crushed a swing that was in the yard and nearly hit an above-ground pool before backing out through the fence again, running over a piece of metal rebar, spinning out in the grass and then taking off at about 11:48 p.m., he said.
“I thought there was a wreck or something,” Thayer said.
“But then I found this,” he said, gesturing toward the fallen fence.
“The police said they were going 70 mph or more.”
Port Angeles Police Officer David Arand said that the investigating officer, Andrew Heuett, is following some leads, but that the investigation has just begun.
No police report was available Thursday, and Heuett, who works a late shift, was not available for comment.
Thayer said he made out only a couple of numbers on the license plate and that he wasn’t sure of the make or model, but would guess it was a 1980s sports car.
It was only two weeks ago that he finished installing his outer fence.
About a year ago, he finished the inner fence that surrounds the pool.
On Thursday, large portions of both fences were destroyed, and the glider swing was a mangled mess.
On Wednesday night, Thayer had seen three men get out of the car and try to pull off bits of fence and chunks of the swing from the car, he said.
He shouted to the men that he had called the police and momentarily considered chasing after them.
“You just never know, though, if they would be violent or shoot me or something,” he said.
“Thinking back, I wished I had grabbed a camera on my way out, but I didn’t know what I would find.”
Thayer said he saw Busch Light beer cans fall out of the car. He said they were confiscated by police.
As the car left, the driver gunned the engine as if to take off, Thayer said.
“But then it was only going like 2 mph as it left,” he said.
“It probably had some serious damage — maybe more than my fence.”
Thayer said the car left its bumper behind.
One of the men in the car almost was left behind, he said.
“Just as they were leaving, he started running and dove head first into the back window,” he said.
“If it weren’t so bad it would almost be funny, thinking about that car driving away with two legs sticking out the window.”
Thayer said his insurance company will evaluate the damage sometime this week or next.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to phone the Port Angeles Police Department at 360-452-4545.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
