COUNTYWIDE : Car Crashes Into Home, Restaurant

A hit-and-run driver rammed a Moorpark home early Saturday morning and then plowed into a nearby restaurant, a police spokesman said.

At 2:55 a.m., a 1978 Chevrolet Monte Carlo swerved off Moorpark Avenue onto a front lawn, Ventura County Sheriff’s Sgt. Terry Hughes said. The man driving the car accelerated rapidly and backed onto the road. But, the car then ran over the lawn and onto the concrete porch of another house at 396 Moorpark Ave. The car knocked the front door of the white frame house into the living room and destroyed one of two front pillars, neighbors said. Occupants of the house were not injured.

The driver backed up and attempted to speed away from the accident, but crashed into Tello’s Mexican Restaurant and Video Store across the street, Hughes said. The driver left his car and fled south on Moorpark Avenue, a witness told police.

The owner of Tello’s, who leases the building, said the car ran over about seven tables in the restaurant before crashing through the connecting wall to the video store.

Police have identified the owner of the car. But they had not determined Saturday afternoon whether the owner was driving at the time of the accident, Hughes said.