Illegal fireworks leave crater in neighbor's car

PARKLAND, Wash. — Illegal fireworks set off in a Pierce County neighborhood hit a man’s car and caused thousands of dollars’ worth of damage.

“I thought it was a bomb. I literally thought someone came up and sat a bomb on the hood of my car,” said Brian Bedilion.

Around 5:40 p.m. Wednesday, Bedilion heard an explosion outside his Parkland home.

“All of a sudden I hear this big boom and this light goes off, so I was kind of stunned at first,” he said.

Cameras next door captured the culprits.

The video shows two people near a white pickup truck light a firework. Smoke shoots up, spirals over the fence and then there’s a blast.

“It loops around, comes around and it lands, boom, right on top of my car,” said Bedilion.

His windshield is shattered, the black paint is peeling up and the hood is smashed in. Nearby, KIRO 7 spotted fireworks fragments.

“The dent in the hood is amazing and that’s metal, so I can only imagine what could’ve happened to someone’s face, body, arms, legs, anything,” he said. “It’s a good size crater. It looks like someone dropped a bowling ball from 20 stories up. It’s big.”

Bedilion reported the incident to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.

"Every year when people are setting off fireworks we end up getting people with some severe injuries, some fires, we get all kinds of different things happen, including houses that catch on fire,” said Detective Ed Troyer, Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. "If they're going to go up or sideways, they're not going to stop until they hit something and, if something's in the way, we could have a big problem."

Bedilion hopes the two people captured on camera come forward to help repair his battered BMW.

"It's an accident, but it would be nice if it could be fixed,” he said.

Bedilion said the repairs to his car will likely cost about $3,000.

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