The same early morning mailbox vandalism that happened on Sunday in Billings Heights appears to have claimed another victim, near the golf course where a pickup truck was hit.
The vehicle owner's roommate says speeding has been a problem through the residential neighborhood.
A vehicle hit the pickup, pushing it into a mailbox early Sunday morning, according to Jesse Escoto, who lives on Saint Andrews Drive.
"At about one o'clock in the morning, it sounded like someone was dropping a dumpster," Escoto said. "Heard a boom that came out around and noticed that my roommate's truck was pushed up against the mailbox. So I went and asked him I said, 'did you not set your emergency brake?' He said no. So he came out we looked at it. When we came around the back when we noticed the whole bag had been pushed in."
The Billings Police Department did not have a report of the hit-and-run crash.
Escoto says it took quite a force with speed and the weight of the vehicle that hit his roommate's truck.
"Pushed in, finished in the whole back of the truck, the tailgate," he said. "It wasn't driveable and pushed it all the way into the rear wheel."
Escoto's pickup was about two feet in front of the mailbox and did not get hit.
He and his roommates do not know what kind of vehicle hit the pickup. But paint chips show the color is maroon and probably another pickup truck.
"And this one had to be something big because it knocked it from where my truck is all the way to the mailbox," Escoto said. "That was about 30 feet. I was talking to my other roommate about it and he said, yeah, either had to be a red vehicle or a burgundy vehicle and probably a high-centered vehicle the way it hit. It was big enough for them to keep going."
Another of Escoto's roommates also had a vehicle hit several months ago.
"My other roommate who parked on the other side got hit head on from someone coming the other direction and totaled his car," Escoto said.
And they say speed is definitely a factor and one they hope soon stops.
"It gets a little frustrating," Escoto said. "You know people need to learn to slow down here pretty much the residential speed limits are 25."
