A Canterbury mother was woken by a terrifying crash in the early hours of Wednesday morning when a stolen ute with a stolen trailer ploughed into her rented house—just metres from where her four children were sleeping.

The Ravenswood resident, who was too frightened to speak publicly, wanted the story shared, property owner Vivienne McKenzie said.

“She was asleep when she heard this massive crash at 2AM,” McKenzie told Chris Lynch Media. “She freaked out, grabbed her kids from their bedrooms, and took them into her room.

She had no idea what was happening—just that something had slammed into her house in the middle of the night.”

When she finally worked up the courage to look outside, she was met with a surreal scene—headlights beaming through the front window, shattered glass everywhere, and a ute with a trailer sitting just off the house.

“She expected to find someone injured or worse, but there was no one there,” McKenzie said. “The driver had vanished.”

The ute and trailer had been stolen separately earlier that night. The trailer’s owner had been alerted to the theft by security cameras and had tracked it down, finding it at the crash site.

“They were waiting at the entrance and exit of the street, trying to figure out where it had gone,” McKenzie said. “When they went into the street, they found it had crashed into the house. But by then, the driver was long gone.”

Police brought in dogs to track the suspect, picking up a scent from the vehicle, but they lost the trail in a nearby paddock.

“The police took the ute in for fingerprinting and tried to contact its owner, but they couldn’t reach them,” McKenzie said.

For the mother inside the home, it was a night of fear and confusion.

“She’s got children, one of them just a year old,” McKenzie said. “She would have been absolutely freaking out, not knowing if there was someone dangerous outside or what she was about to walk into.”

Other residents reported seeing another stolen car speeding through the neighbourhood with alarms blaring, raising concerns the offender may have stolen another vehicle to escape.

McKenzie said they had been working with their insurance company and gathering security camera footage from neighbours to help police.

“People have come forward with videos showing the truck and trailer driving past, and some even capturing the offender,” she said.

“One person’s footage showed the driver jumping out just before the crash and running away. There were no skid marks, no signs of braking—he just bailed.”

A police spokeswoman said police were making enquiries to identify and locate the driver.