Two men who smashed a van into several parked cars on a busy residential street were caught fleeing on CCTV - but not before one ran back to the scene to collect a dog he'd apparently forgotten was in the footwell. The incident, which happened just after 8pm in John Street in Abercwmboi, Rhondda Cynon Taf, on Friday, January 27 was described by bystanders as having sounded like "a bomb going off."
One white Ford Fiesta, which took the brunt of the impact, was hit so hard by the speeding grey Vauxhall Astra van that one of its back tyres was catapulted several yards down the road. Its owner, a mum-of-two from Aberaman who'd been visiting a friend nearby, said it was a miracle no-one was killed.
"In the footage I saw from a neighbouring CCTV camera there'd been people walking up and down that street just a minute or so before the crash happened," she said. "They could have easily been crushed because my car ended up on the pavement." You can get more RCT news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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The 40-year-old added that she'd heard "a loud bang, like a bomb" and went outside. "It was chaos, bits of glass and metal everywhere - one of my back wheels was in the middle of the road about four doors down. The two who'd been in the Vauxhall had run off, but then came back to frantically get their stuff from inside. You can hear one of them on the CCTV shouting, 'Grab my phone, butt'.
"There were also laughing gas cannisters all over the front seat. And then one of them emerged holding a dog under his arm - poor thing had been in the footwell the whole time. I shouted and asked what the hell they thought they were doing but they didn't play the blindest bit of attention to me, or to any of the other people who were also out on their doorsteps by that point."
A spokesperson from South Wales Police said: "We are continuing to investigate a road traffic collision in John Street Abercwmboi, at 8.20pm on Friday, January 27. One vehicle, a Vauxhall Astra van, crashed into a number of parked cars. The driver and a passenger of the Vauxhall made off from the scene. No injuries were reported."
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