ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – A night of chaos. That’s what some businesses on Central are calling it after a truck ran through not one but two businesses while trying to escape police. “This was my work bay, this was where I make my living. Feed my children,” said Martin Martinez, lead tech at Freedom Auto Sales.
Around one on Wednesday morning, what started as a slow night at a couple of car businesses on East Central turned into chaos. “We don’t know the amount of the extent of all the damage,” said Martinez.
Surveillance video from the Royal Car Wash near Juan Tabo shows APD chasing a dark truck that sped into the car wash off Central and then hit a white truck inside a wash bay which pushed that truck into the wall across the lot.
From there, the suspect’s truck sped off slamming into the Freedom Auto Sales shop next door. “We don’t know why, we know it was a high-speed chase just have to deal with the consequences now,” said Martinez.
The tail end of the truck stuck out of the building hiding the damage inside. “A 12-thousand pound lift that’s permanently mounted to the ground this was just completely destroyed and ripped out of the ground,” said Martinez.
Two walls, a lift, and the truck on top of the lift were destroyed. Scattering cinderblock from the outside wall across the building all while a technician was inside.
“No one did get hurt luckily,” said Martinez.
Martinez says he still can’t bear to see video of the crash and his livelihood being destroyed. “The photos I got were enough. My toolbox being smashed, that was devastating enough for me,” said Martinez. “We lost a lot of stuff here.” Freedom Auto Sales says they still don’t know how much the damage will cost.
News 13 reached out to APD to learn more about the crash but have not heard back.
