A stroller is missing a wheel, standing unevenly on a concrete floor. The garage door is broken into pieces, crumpled in front of a cracked wall in Jacqueline Moore’s Vinton garage.

A man drove his Dodge Durango through Moore’s garage door and a wall Tuesday night, into the home where her grandmother was watching her two children. Moore said the crash, which Vinton police are still investigating, involved her husband, after tension built up during their separation.

Moore said she and her husband of 12 years separated in October, and that she now owns the home in the 1800 block of Meadows Court in Vinton. She said her husband sent her text messages last week that made her uncomfortable, prompting her to file a police report.

By the weekend, he had sent a message saying he was going away for a while.

But Tuesday night she said she received more messages from him while she was eating at Olive Garden with a friend. He said he needed to retrieve something from her Vinton house, where Moore’s grandmother had come over to watch Moore’s 8-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter.

Shortly afterward, she received a text message from her son: Someone was trying to break in.

Moore said her grandmother turned her husband away at the front door. As the children screamed, her husband then beat on windows around the home before walking back to his navy blue SUV shortly before 7:30 p.m. and driving it through the garage door and into a storage room in the home, she said.

“My children play in this garage all the time,” Moore said. “What if my kids had been playing in there?”

The SUV then reversed, striking and bending back a basketball hoop near the driveway.

By the time Moore had rushed back from the restaurant, Vinton police and Roanoke County fire crews had responded. Her children were sheltered at a neighbor’s home until she picked them up.

“They both ran to me and just busted into tears,” Moore said. “When they saw me it just all came crashing back.”

She said the children are still shaken up from the separation, and Tuesday night’s incident is adding to that trauma.

Vinton police Lt. Mark Vaught said he could not identify the driver, but said the man was arrested and taken before a magistrate, then released. The victim took out an emergency protective order, Vaught said, but no charges have been filed as police continue to investigate the incident.

Moore, who has a boyfriend who had recently come up in text messages with her husband, said her husband has battled post-traumatic stress disorder following military service.

The house sustained damage to the garage door and an interior wall. It was partially flooded after pipes were broken in the crash.

Two dogs, a yellow lab and an Australian shepherd, were inside the garage. The Australian shepherd, which is named Rivers and has red and white fur, hasn’t been seen since the crash.

Chase Purdy contributed to this report.

Weather Journal

11 hours ago