BILLINGS — A Billings family is cleaning up their home after a stolen vehicle plowed into their home Thursday morning near downtown while two people were inside.
A stolen car came crashing through the home of Liann Reed, turning her living space into a disaster zone in seconds. What started as a normal morning quickly turned to panic.
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"It was huge. It, my ears still are ringing sometimes with it," Reed said Saturday.
Reed said the timing may have saved her life.
"If I had slept in that morning like I planned, I would have been dead," Reed said.
Billings police say they arrested 32-year-old Redleaf BraidedHair, she was charged with motor vehicle theft, driving under the influence and two counts of criminal endangerment.
"It's not something we would even think would happen," Reed said.
Now, the shock has given way to the hard work of cleaning up. Piles of broken material have come out of the house, and some personal belongings were saved.
"That's been not fun. My boyfriend's been taking out loads of the debris," Reed said. "Some of the stuff we've been able to salvage, some we can't. So we're just kind of moving through it."
But the family is still living with the reality of a home that's been severely damaged. Holes in the walls remain, and winter is just around the corner.
"Use hotel rooms or whatever for me and the kid and all that over the time period of the winter cold months," Reed said.
For Reed, the uncertainty is just as overwhelming as the damage.
"We're a family, we go on paycheck to paycheck like everybody else and everything. And the stuff does not even register half the time, that we need, what to do about it," Reed said.
It's a situation she never imagined her family would be forced to navigate.
"I'm still reeling from it all. So I just hope that it gets out there that drunk driving's not the greatest thing. And hopefully, and trying to steal cars, of course," Reed said.
"We'll see if what's gonna happen from there. We're just waiting on the next steps," Reed said.
Click here for the GoFundMe.
