How'd that happen? Car found in roadworks hole

A community woke up in shock after a car was discovered in a hole in the road on Saturday night.

The dark blue Audi had to be lifted out of the road opening by arm crane in Cradley Heath.

The road had been dug up as part of ongoing gas works in the road.

But rather than shopkeepers complaining over the impact of the works on trade yesterday, many were left in bewilderment by the stuck vehicle.

The driver had fled the scene, close to the Tesco Extra supermarket, before police officers arrived at around 11.30pm.

Theresa Fields runs The Walk-in Wardrobe on the High Street.

She said: "I suppose it puts us on the map again.

"Cradley Heath is a forgotten place, it has been left - many shops come in and try and pick up the trade, but its difficult.

"Then you get this. I mean, it is amazing - I just can't work out how they've done that.

"It'll certainly cause a stir."

The shopkeeper, who has run the shop for two years, said many motorists turned round at the part of the road where the crash happened.

But she added: "I think in this case, it was probably just an idiot."

Asid Iqbal, owner of of Cradley Heath Newsagents said: "I had lots of customers showing me the pictures and talking about the car. It's all they wanted to talk about.

"It was a shock.

"We think there were to lads in the car when it crashed and they might have been drunk. It's lucky there weren't seriously hurt with the gas mains being there. It could have much a lot more serious."

Angela Gelencser is founder of Wild Acre Rescue, which has a charity shop on the High Street, close to the incident.

The charity has been running seven years. It depends on the shop to raise around £12,000 a month for veterinary bills.

She said: "This doesn't look like a crash to me.

"Someone has moved the barriers and pushed the car in the hole. We get a lot of idiots, I'm afraid."

She added: "When I first saw it, I was amused. My thoughts are this was not an accident."

Ms Gelencser said the gas works on the road by National Grid had caused more disruption than first thought.

The company said it had kept businesses 'fully informed and updated', and had returned to complete a final phase of a gas mains replacement on February 13.

The work is now due to finish on March 31.

Haden Cross Fire Station said there had been no gas leaks and that the gas company would be making the fencing secure again.

A West Midlands Police spokesman added: "Police were called to High Street, Cradley Heath, at just before 11.25pm last night to reports of a car hitting road barriers.

"The vehicle had been abandoned when officers arrived."