Violent crash leaves South Jersey animal sanctuary in ruins and owners seeking justice

BRIDGETON, New Jersey (WPVI) -- New Jersey State Police are investigating after a violent crash in Cumberland County left an animal sanctuary in ruins Sunday night.

It happened between 10 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. on the 200 block of Beebe Run Road in Bridgeton.

The property is a farm and animal sanctuary known as Uncle Neil's Home.

"We have about 80 residents who live here at the sanctuary," said owner Rian Feldman.

It's a place where animals feel safe, but Feldman couldn't protect them from an unexpected visitor Sunday night.

"Someone drove through our fence, came through the trees, completely wrecked their car. The cement fell into the well, busted all of the pipes, and our well completely flooded. There are car parts in our trees, so the car was just completely totaled, completely demolished," Feldman recalled.

On Monday morning, Feldman and her partner, Scooter Belasco, discovered the aftermath of the crash near the front of their 14-acre property while inspecting the source of a water outage at their home.

They said they did not hear the crash when it happened due to the distance their home is from the road.

"What makes me the most upset is that this happened at 10:20 last night and the driver fled the scene. Didn't knock on our door, did not call the police, completely fled the scene, left his flipped-over car in our grass," Feldman said.

Pictures from the scene showed the car flipped on its roof.

While surveillance cameras on the property did not capture the crash, they did capture footage of a man jumping over their driveway gate and falling to the ground.

The crash went unreported for several hours overnight. While Belasco was inspecting his property, it was then the pair also discovered the driver and his family had returned to the scene along with police.

Feldman said the man claimed he'd fallen asleep at the wheel.

"I was in such shock and full of rage. I'm still angry and livid. He could've killed someone, he could've killed our animals," Feldman said.

Action News was able to contact that man to get his side of the story, but he hung up after we identified ourselves and the reason for our call.

Feldman and her partner have already had their fence repaired, but cleanup isn't over and will cost them thousands.

"I'm just happy that we're all OK, he's OK, and that there were no casualties," said Feldman's partner, Belasco.

On Monday, New Jersey State Police confirmed they're investigating the crash but did not release further information.