Driver flees after wild crash at Farmingdale condo

FARMINGDALE, NY – It was a wild scene on Long Island on Thursday.

An out-of-control car crashed into a condo, with a family sleeping inside.

The house was condemned. The family told CBS2’s Andrea Grymes it was terrifying, but they’re just glad no one was hurt.

You can barely tell that part of the wreckage was the kitchen, amid the tons of debris in the Laiosa family’s Farmingdale condo.

“The stove is in the living room. The whole downstairs is totally destroyed,” owner Steve Laiosa said.

He says he, his wife and son-in-law were sleeping upstairs, when around 2.30am a car crashed through the windows in their first floor.

“The sound was so loud. My wife was screaming and at that moment I had no idea what was going on.

There is a trail of destruction outside. Laiosa and the Famingdale Building Inspector believe the fast car came from Route 109, drove through the fence on the side of the condo, and flew away. What’s left of a broken taillight is stuck under the second story windows.

“Cut through treetops and landed upside down in my house. Trunk went in first,” Laiosa said.

“It’s really, really a miracle it’s not worse,” Farmingdale building inspector Ron De Marrais said.

The Laiosa family were uninjured and the driver suffered only minor injuries. The police say he fled.

“He actually broke his windshield, came running over here. And I came from my back fence, and I met him right there. And he said ‘Oh my God, I’m going to lose my work'”, Laiosa said.

Nassau police said a neighbor then grabbed the driver a few blocks away.

Police identified him as Calogero Messina, 20, of Astoria, Queens. He is charged with criminal mischief and leaving the scene of an incident.

“Obviously I want to see justice, but I kinda feel bad for the kid. He doesn’t know what he did to himself,” Laiosa said.

As for the house itself, the building inspector says an engineer needs to come and see what can be done to make it habitable again. He says it doesn’t appear the neighboring condos have any structural issues.