Sandra Henderson woke up early Monday morning to her husband telling her the house was on fire and there was a car in the living room.
“Oh my God, I panicked,” she said. “We had to break the back gate to get the door open so we could get out.”
St. Petersburg police say a person stole a Honda Accord and crashed it into the Hendersons’ home on 14th Avenue South at about 3 a.m. The car thief, who fled the scene, has not yet been identified by police. But on Monday afternoon, police released a video of the suspect walking away from the scene and asked for the public’s help in identifying him.
Henderson, 56, said she and her husband did not see anybody after the crash, but their neighbor’s Ring doorbell camera captured the incident, and police are reviewing the footage.
“It was like a bomb dropped,” Abbott Henderson said. “I got up and said, ‘We’ve got to get the hell out of here — the house is on fire.’”
Police believe the Honda Accord was stolen sometime overnight from the 2100 block of Ninth Avenue South.
Sandra and Abbott Henderson are the sole occupants of the home, and they were able to get out safely. The home, however, “sustained significant structural damage,” the police department said in a news release. On Monday, photos showed a large part of the home without walls and windows, which were destroyed.
Abbott Henderson has lived in the home for 35 years, his wife said. They stood outside the house Monday morning trying to clear some of the debris.
“We’re trying to get it together and at least patch it up until we get the money to get it fixed,” she said.
The investigation is ongoing.
Times photojournalist Dirk Shadd contributed to this report.