‘It’s like a meteor hit’: Hit-and-run crash sends car into Belmont Cragin apartment

CHICAGO — An investigation is underway on Friday afternoon after a hit-and-run crash sent a car into the front room of a garden unit at an apartment building on the city’s Northwest Side.

The crash unfolded just before 1 p.m. in Belmont Cragin, in the 3000 block of North Laramie Avenue, according to Chicago police.

Officers said an unknown driver who was heading westbound along West Wellington Avenue in an SUV was involved in a crash with a 52-year-old woman who was driving southbound along Laramie in a black Honda.

The crash caused the driver of the Honda to lose control of her vehicle and she ended up crashing into another car before slamming into a building in the 2900 block of North Laramie Avenue.

Following the crash, the driver of the SUV fled the scene.

The woman involved in the crash suffered a neck injury and was taken to the hospital where she was listed in fair condition. No other injuries were reported.

Video from the scene showed a black Honda partially inside a garden unit of the building, with a heavily damaged minivan resting on the sidewalk nearby.

The crash caused some damage to the front room of the unit, leaving a large hole where the vehicle’s front end tore through the wall.

The damaged unit was being prepared for a new tenant, so there were no residents in the apartment at the time of the crash, but one person, who was working on the unit, was inside and was startled by the incident.

“It’s like a meteor hit. You know, it’s amazing,” Joe, who was working on the unit said. “And then you just run into the other room and hear hissing, and seeing, and you didn’t realize you had an underground parking garage.

A resident said he was inside his apartment when the crash unfolded.

“We were upstairs watching TV and we just heard a loud bang. So we just came outside to see what had happened. We see the car down in the basement, kind of messed up, Daniel, who lives in the building said.

Crews could later be seen pulling the car from the building, showing the full extent of the damage to the vehicle and the unit.

Authorities said no citations were issued following the crash.

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