Wayne Pina and his wife Marie were woken up late last night by a loud "bang and a crash," Mr. Pina said.  They looked outside to find a car crashed into the side of their house.

"Go ahead and take pictures," Mr. Pina said the next morning.  "Everybody else has been."

According to the police log, the call came in at 11:57 Monday night from the home, located at 209 Marion Road, just across from the road's intersection with Swifts Beach Road.  Nobody was injured in the accident, and Pina said that the tenants who lived in the apartment which sustained the damage were not at home at the time of the incident.  They spent the night at a relatives' home and are now at a hotel courtesy of the driver's insurance company.

The car spent the night in the house, however, - firefighters determined it was unable to be removed until the building inspector evaluated the scene due to concerns and determined whether the car was supporting the structure's second floor.

Director of Inspectional Services Myles Burke said that after evaluation, he and an  inspector determined that the car could be removed without further damage to the structure.  The tow company will be on the scene on Wednesday morning.

Burke called the damage "considerable," estimating it to be over $20,000 once the insurance adjusters and contractors finish their evaluations.

"They'll have to replace some of the supports...will have to take part of the wall down and work from the footings on up," Burke said on Tuesday afternoon.

Pina said that the driver, who was not identified in the police report, passed sobriety tests but reportedly admitted to having had two beers prior to driving.  The police confirmed that it did not appear to be a drunken driving incident, but said they were unsure what had caused the incident.

Pina said that they he and his wife, who have lived in the house for 11 years, get woken up quite a bit during the summer when the traffic is heavy on Marion Road.  But he didn't quite expect to be woken up with a car in his house:  Seven years ago, he said another car had crashed into the house, and Pina had added metal posts to a row of several concrete pillars installed by the previous owner to prevent another accident.

Unfortunately, last night the metal posts didn't stop the car.