A runaway car smashed into a parked caravan in Bovey Tracey this week.
The car – driven by an elderly woman from the town – demolished a garden fence before crushing the empty caravan parked in a driveway.
Home owners Robert and Maureen Smith, who were in Exeter when the trouble occurred, learned about it in a phone call from a neighbour.
And Mrs Smith's main concern was for the couple in the car, A Citroen Xsara Picasso.
The crash happened in Kiln Close, which police closed off while they and ambulance and fire service personnel dealt with the incident. Police have left the matter in insurers' hands.