Charges are pending against the man accused of driving through a Cherokee County home, police said Tuesday.
Homeowner Gordon McDowell said he was at work Monday afternoon when he got a call from a neighbor: Someone had driven a car all the way through McDowell's house.
"It's a mess," McDowell said, while looking around the backyard at the damage. "It looks like a tornado came through."
Investigators have not yet determined what caused 36-year-old Shane Rainwater to blow through a stop sign and drive down a driveway, through a closed garage door, and out the back wall of a home, Capt. Joe Perkins with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office told the AJC.
No one was in the dwelling at the time.
Rainwater, of Acworth, was alert and talking after slamming his Honda Accord into a large tree behind the Cedar Mill Crossing home, near Kellogg Creek Road. He was taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, Marietta, with injuries not believed to be life-threatening, Perkins said.
"There was no evidence at the scene that indicated Rainwater was impaired at the time of the accident," Lt. Jay Baker with the sheriff's office said Tuesday.
Neighbor Vanessa Calderon, who lives two houses away, said she heard the sound of the car driving through McDowell's house.
"We thought it was thunder at first," Calderon told the AJC.
McDowell said his two dogs in the garage weren't harmed, but one ran away during the commotion.
The man's Bayliner boat and a Jet Ski, which was in the backyard several yards from the home, weren't as lucky. McDowell said he also wasn't ready to see the damage to his 1995 Corvette, which was also parked in the garage.
Monday afternoon, he was waiting for an engineer to tell him if the home is safe to enter.
The investigation into the incident continued Tuesday and charges are forthcoming, Baker said.
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