Stolen Van Crashes Into Uptown Home While Tenants Play GTA Inside

This from the 'you can't make this stuff up' category: The following is a true story of an incident that took place while I was living in uptown New Orleans while attending college in late 2002 or 2003.

Seven or eight years ago, I was attending school in New Orleans and renting the downstairs of a house near the uptown campus.  One cold night while my roommates and I were inside playing Grand Theft Auto on Playstation 2, a stolen van flattened the hedges in our front yard before plowing through the side of the house.  It came to a rest just a few feet away from where I was sitting.

Prior to its collision with the house, the van struck two cars while fleeing the scene of the initial theft.  One of the drivers caught up to the van when it came to a stop in the side of the house.  The driver of the stolen vehicle -- an overweight middle-aged woman -- attempted to flee the scene on foot but was successfully pursued by the driver of one of the hit-and-run victims.  The driver whose car was struck caught up to the woman and tackled her, and then held her down until police arrived.

The photo above is meant to help the reader envision what the scene looked like from the vantage point of my roommates and I.  It was not taken at the crime scene described in this post.