By Rodney Williams
Van Alstyne Leader
VAN ALSTYNE, Texas — Cathy Bell was enjoying a calm, sunny Tuesday just before a loud boom echoed through her house, shattering the stillness of the morning. Bell, not knowing what had happened, made her way around the corner of her house to find that a late-model Ford F-150 had slammed into her wall and that the driver still had his foot on the gas with the back tires spinning.
Unfortunately, that driver, 65-year-old Charles Glass, of Gunter, was slumped behind the wheel unconscious. He was later pronounced dead at Wilson N. Jones Medical Center in Sherman.
Emergency responders — including police, fire and ambulance crews from Van Alstyne and a Howe police officer — made their way down the winding road that is W. FM 121, a road that in its own peculiar way contributed to the coming together of truck and house.
Though no definitive cause of death has been announced, Van Alstyne police speculate that a medical condition caused Glass to lose consciousness while driving west on FM 121 at approximately noon on Tuesday. The ultimate path Glass’ vehicle took could be found in the tire tracks on the grassy, slightly inclined sides of the roadway. It appears that Glass began to veer off the road to the right when his vehicle drove up on an incline. That incline appears to have re-directed Glass’ truck back across the road and down an embankment in a direct line with the east side of Bell’s brick home. Glass’ truck traveled approximately 250 yards over an embankment and then down an incline, between a stone wall and out building, mowing down a tree and a children’s large wooden play fort before striking the Bell house.
Though debris was scattered all across the yard there were no injuries to the homeowner.
In other police news, a months-long investigation recently culminated with a guilty finding in the case of Rory Hogenson of Van Alstyne. Hogenson was accused of harassment against DPS Trooper Michael Landeros, and prosecutors said the Van Alstyne man dumped nails behind the trooper’s squad car parked in his driveway for a year after after Landeros pulled him over for driving drunk on Highway 75 more than two years prior. Van Alstyne police say there were 27 documented cases of nails being dumped behind the trooper’s car while parked in his driveway.
Though Hogenson was found guilty in late April sentencing is not expected to take place until at least June.
On Friday, May 2, at approximately 10:30 p.m., Collin County law enforcement officer pursued a fleeing vehicle into Van Alstyne. The vehicle fleeing officers exited Farmington Rd. at a high rate of speed, lost control and rolled. VAPD officers worked the scene. The driver of the fleeing vehicle was transported via CareFlite to Medical Center of Plano with non-life-threating injuries.
On April 30 at approximately 4:20 p.m. police were called out the 1000 block of Greywood. One of the residents had returned home to find Levin Key, 43 of Van Alstyne, inside the home. The woman was not known to the homeowner and police arrested her for criminal tresspass, a Class B misdemeanor.
On May 3, at approximately 4:34 p.m. on southbound Highway 75, Tiffany Bowen, 33, of Sherman, was arrested by VAPD officers for failure to identify fugitive from justice. Bowen presented false identification to officers, and she was wanted on outstanding warrants. The offense is a Class B misdemeanor.