BELOIT (WKOW) — Anita Anderson said she woke to a sound louder than thunder Sunday morning around 4:00.
“I wasn’t sure what it was,” she said.
She immediately got out of bed and rushed to the window in time to witness a car that was not her neighbor’s sitting in the backyard.
“He kept going backwards and forwards in the car,” she said. “I called 911 immediately.”
Law enforcement later identified the man as 26-year-old Thomas D. Weidner.
By the time Beloit officers were able to arrive, Anderson said Weidner was already reversing his SUV out of the backyard. He then almost hit the arriving officer’s car.
“I pointed in that direction, ‘That’s him,'” she said.
Weidner is accused of driving intoxicated and leading law enforcement officers on a high speed pursuit from Beloit to Janesville, sometimes topping speeds of almost 100 mph. He was eventually slowed down by stop sticks as he was getting into Janesville. He tried to run away, but a K-9 unit tracked him down.
“It’s a pretty scary thought knowing he could either hurt someone, hurt himself,” said Anderson. “The damages he caused from here to Janesville, God knows what.”
As she and her husband survey what remains of their fence, she’s grateful no one was hurt in the incident she called “reckless.”
“Someone could lose their life in instances like this,” she said. “It’s very dangerous.”
Anderson said she hopes people will think twice before driving intoxicated.
“I think if you see someone intoxicated like that, be aware and notify someone if they’re with you or notify someone in your surroundings, so someone can seek help and help them,” she said. “Just to find out whether or not they’re getting in a car to go somewhere, and potentially do what this guy did last night.”
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