New resident Carol Peachey now forced to use a hire car and left shaken after car stolen, destroyed in crash

The Albany resident who had her car stolen and crashed said the incident has left her reeling and needing to use a hire car to get around her new hometown. Carol Peachey’s Holden Commodore wagon was stolen from outside her house between 9pm and 11pm on June 29, before slamming into a home on Middleton Road just before midnight. The car rolled down an embankment and through the front wall of a house while its tenants slept inside, wrecking two parked cars in its path and ending up on its roof. Ms Peachey said the seeing the resulting crash and the near-miss of those sleeping inside the Middleton Road residence was “completely unsettling”. “I have never in my life seen so much destruction, my stolen vehicle had gone airborne, landed on top of the two parked vehicles, completely flattening one,” she said. “It had . . . flipped onto its roof and caught on fire, with a full tank of fuel in it — the outcome could have been much much worse. “It was extremely lucky no one was killed.” Ms Peachey is self-employed as a cleaner, and kept much of her equipment in her car, which is now unsalvageable. “My thoughts have been with the tenants of the house that got hit, not only for their loss but the trauma they have endured,” she said. “The ripples go far beyond a quick joy ride. “The car they stole I’d owned and lovingly maintained for 18 years, and was used as my work vehicle. “It was a complete write off, and all my equipment that was in it is now damaged. “I loved that car and I’ve been putting money into that car for years, because I had to to keep going. “I’ve been getting around with a hire car in the meantime from my insurance company, but I won’t get back half of the money I put into that car, I’ll never get back its full worth.” A new resident in Albany, Ms Peachey said she loved her new house and community and had been settling in following her move from Denmark. She said in an economic climate where everyone was struggling to make ends meet, the cost of a stolen car or a damaged house can be disastrous, and said these kind of incidents that put people’s security and safety at risk were “extremely disappointing” to see.