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Wrong-way driver abandons junker at Waterplace Park

3:42 PM Wed, Jul 15, 2009 |
Amanda Milkovits    Email

junker_502.jpg
A vehicle allegedly taken for a joy ride that wandered down to WaterPlace Park -- and down about 20 steps -- was left abandoned next to the reflecting pool. Now the removal of the vehicle is the issue. Providence Journal photo / Sandor Bodo

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Perhaps it could be a lovely planter. Or, an extra-large brazier for next Saturday's WaterFire.

Early Sunday morning, some driver apparently mistook the pedestrian tunnel under the new Waterplace Luxury Residences condos for a highway tunnel -- and found a new way to get to Waterplace Park.

At the wheel of a clunker at 2 a.m., a motorist sped the car up over the curb outside the tony condo building and drove through the short pedestrian tunnel under the building, then plunged down two flights of stairs to the railing around Waterplace Park, police Lt. Michael J. Figueiredo said. With nowhere to go but into the water, the driver banked a sharp left, drove over the pedestrian walkway over the river and tried, without success, to take a right onto the handicapped ramp at the Memorial Boulevard end.

So, the motorist backed up, parked outside the condo building's plate-glass windows, and ran off -- leaving behind a puzzle: How to get the battered Nissan back out.

Wednesday afternoon, the general manager of Providence towing company Coletta's looked over the scene, as he posed different ways to get the car out. "Looks like he thought this was the Dunkin' Donuts drive-through," John C. Mosesian said.

The walkway where the car is sitting is actually the condo's property, which means the condo's insurance company will probably get stuck with the $1,000 towing bill, he said. The owner of the car was found in Pennsylvania, but it's unclear who was actually driving the vehicle.

Mosesian said he'll either use a crane to lift the car up and over the 7-foot wall along Memorial Boulevard, or move it back up the stairs, using ramps to protect the steps. It'll take several workers to keep the car from banging into the railings alongside the stairs, he said.

That apparently wasn't a problem for the mystery driver, who somehow managed to come flying down the 22 steps without nicking the railings. "It's like James Bond was driving here," Mosesian said.

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Comments

EMT said:

Must be one of the thousands of drunk drivers endangering everyone on the roads in the capitol city that the Providence Police DON'T arrest every year.



Tom of Providence said:

Maybe we should leave it there and charge admission to see it.
Or raffle it off for money to go to the Summer time fund!!Talk Coletta`s(who has nore city tow jobs than anyone)into then towing it for free!!
That`s being CREATIVE PROVIDENCE.



Jonny said:

They should have mentioned how security at Waterplace had called the police when it happened and it took over 45 minutes for them to come. or the fact that the driver ran away only after the bouncer from Waterplace resteraunt told him "He should bounce" Still it would have been proper for the police to at least search the car for any clue to the driver's ID. After all there are photographs right on the front seat. i just cant believe the police took allmost NO ACTION at all. Somebody could have been killed... guess its not the police's problem now is it?



Dave said:

If Bond had been driving, removal wouldn't be an issue... the car would have exploded already!



sue said:

Removal ?
Just put the word on the street that car parts are available for free and it'll disappear in days.



Trixie said:

Does Patrick Kennedy have an alibi?




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