Residents of a street in Taita, Lower Hutt were given an early wake-up call this morning when a vehicle smashed through the fence of one of their properties.
Resident Sam Telfer said they were woken to a bang when the car hurtled through their fence, but by the time she and her partner got outside the occupants had already fled.
Luckily they had a security camera installed at the front of their house.
"As soon as we saw it we knew we would have caught the whole thing on camera," she said.
"It's not the first time we've caught some great stuff happening so it was a good investment."
The video shows the vehicle crashing through the fence into Telfer's front yard, after which four occupants sprint from the scene.
Police confirmed they were notified of a single-vehicle crash on the street around 6.30am and inquiries were ongoing.
"They looked very young judging by the video and the people who saw them," she said.
"They fled incredibly quickly, and they all seemed to run down the same street so I'm wondering whether they might be locals themselves."
Telfer said their fencing was reinforced with concrete, and without this the car could have gone "hurtling into the house".
It was also a neighbourhood with a lot of children that could have been at risk, had the incident occurred later in the day.
"It's a busy road, so the road they crossed over, there could have been a car driving past, even just pets on the road," she said.
"There were a lot of what-ifs or could-have-beens."
Telfer said two other residents on their street had seen similar crashes in the past couple of years.
"I've commented before that people through our street really fast and we should have speed bumps."
"Now there's someone with a written-off car and us with an excess with insurance, which is fun."
As well as the damage to the fence, the car had destroyed a few manuka trees in their front yard and left oil over their front lawn.
Fire crews were quickly on the scene and it appeared to be under control within minutes.