BY MICHELLE KIM

When Chris and Pat Blanchette saw the black pickup truck gunning towards the side of their house, they couldn’t believe it.

Just moments before, they had been quietly relaxing in the living room of that very house – a neat, modest place they had built eight years ago at 151 N. Mast St. as their retirement home.

The Blanchettes had just returned from their nightly walk and were watching a Robert Duvall western in the living room on the evening of Oct. 1. Pat Blanchette was about to go to bed when, shortly before 9 p.m., they heard a furious commotion through the open windows and stepped outside to investigate.

From their porch they could make out a black Chevy S-10 pickup truck on North Mast Road, running cars off the road, weaving between mailboxes and telephone poles, and tearing up the lawns, fences and bushes of their neighbors across the street and next door.

“He was just going crazy,” said Chris Blanchette, 58, a  retired machine operator with a salt-and-pepper beard. “He was running things down, as if he couldn’t care less.”

Their next-door neighbor, Bill Chaput of 141 N. Mast Road, was at home watching the Ken Burns WWII documentary at the time.

“When the noises started outside, I sat there for a minute trying to figure out if the noise was coming from inside or outside,” Chaput said. “I could hear a bang and then another bang, and more banging. I went outside and all I could see was smoke from tires and rubber and dirt flying around.

“It was like a demolition derby,” said Chaput, whose driveway fences were destroyed.

After tearing through the property of the house across the street, the truck straightened out and aimed for the Blanchette residence.

The Blanchettes looked at each other incredulously. “It’s like, ‘this is not happening,’” said Chris Blanchette.

The truck picked up speed, smashing through the wooden fence separating the Blanchette property from the road.

“He never slowed,” Chris said.

They heard a loud boom as the truck drove straight into the side of their house under their bedroom.

The whole event probably only took about 30 seconds, said Chris, but time seemed to go in slow motion.

“It’s like being in a movie,” said Pat Blanchette, 57, a soft spoken caregiver and nursing assistant. “When you’re watching it, you don’t think it’s real.”

The impact caved in a portion of the foundation, narrowly missing an oil tank in the basement. The floor joints were reinforced by the Fire Department to allow the Blanchettes to remain safely in their home.

The driver, identified by police as 18-year-old Jonathan Green of Weare, had facial cuts and was stuck in the vehicle, screaming and yelling obscenities, but didn’t appear to be in pain, said Chris.

“He was totally out of it. Panicky,” said Chris.

By that time, the Goffstown police were on the scene, having received multiple calls about Green’s rampage along North Mast Road.

Moments before, Green had rear-ended a vehicle at the intersection of White Street and North Mast, driven by Weare resident Jennifer Gurksnis, 29, who was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening at Elliot Hospital. Several other vehicles were also rear-ended or run off the road.

Green was quite combative while being arrested, said Chris Blanchette, kicking and spitting and even punching one officer. It took three or four officers to subdue him, but he eventually calmed down.

Green was arrested and charged with two counts of conduct after an accident, felony reckless conduct,
felony DWI, reckless operation, two counts of assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and posession of a controlled substance.

He is scheduled to appear in Goffstown District Court on Nov. 20.

Despite the whole ordeal, Chris and Pat Blanchette expressed sympathy toward Green.

“I really felt sorry for him,” said Pat Blanchette. “He’s such a young person. He’s not starting out too good.”

If there’s a silver lining in the experience for the Blanchettes, it’s the reaction of the people around them, from the public saftey officials to concrete company that dropped what they were doing to come and repair the Blanchettes’ damaged foundation.

“I really want to thank everybody that helped us,” said Pat Blanchette.

There was good response from the Goffstown Police Department and Fire Department, along with officers from Weare who turned out for the incident, she said.

”It’s nice to know if there’s a disaster, everybody knows what to do.”