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Marine’s Memorial Spared In Crash

SCRANTON — A runaway pickup truck damaged a car and home in Scranton but spared a valuable piece of property. The truck missed hitting a car that belonged...
scr truck into house

SCRANTON -- A runaway pickup truck damaged a car and home in Scranton but spared a valuable piece of property.

The truck missed hitting a car that belonged to a Marine who died fighting overseas exactly five years ago today.

Marine Lance Corporal Larry Johnson was killed on February 18, 2010. For five years, this day on the calendar has been a very difficult for his family. Their home has become a memorial to the fallen soldier.

Call it luck, or something else, the items Cpl. Johnson's family has in memory of him were protected during Tuesday night's crash.

The Johnson family say they heard the sound of screeching tires then a crash and the house shook; a rude awakening on a day that's already tough for them to bear.

A pickup truck came barreling into their yard, hit one of the family cars but narrowly missed another.

"It's my son Lance Cpl. Larry Johnson's car that I've had since he got killed in Afghanistan. If that car would have got hit, I don't know what would have happened. I would have lost my mind because that's all I have left," said Johanna Johnson.

Johanna's son's car has become sort of a memorial to him. The family's home is a memorial, too to the 19-year-old marine who was killed in Afghanistan exactly five years ago.

Johanna Johnson and her daughter Janis say February 18 has brought them an awful lot of bad luck and pain that surpasses a totaled car and a mess in the front yard.

"No, it kind of makes it a little worse because I've got to deal with that and deal with this."

After the pickup hit Janis Johnson's car, it continued through their yard and stopped just before hitting a flag Lance Corporal Johnson's family put up in his honor.

Larry's sister Janis smiled at the thought that her brother may have had a role in how the poorly timed ordeal played out. After all, no one was hurt and it could have been much worse.

"Thank God I wasn't in the car this time, So, that was the best part about it and that's why I believe there's an angel because anything could have happened."

Janis Johnson told us that the driver of the pickup promised her he would replace her damaged car. We don't know if he will make good on that promise. He was taken into police custody for suspicion of DUI.

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