Local man credits a baseball game for saving his life after car crashes into his home

SWEDEN, N.Y. (WHEC) — Sweden native Bob Spencer says a New York Yankees game saved his life. His family is picking up the pieces trying to figure out how to fix up their home that’s more than 200 years old.

Spencer and his wife have lived in their house on Colby Street for almost 40 years. He says he was watching last night’s game when the Yankees got a last-minute win, so he walked upstairs to bed. Seconds later a car was in his living room.

"If he had let the guy score I would have been sitting there and not here," Spencer said.

Spencer spent Wednesday trying to piece his house back together.

"The Yankee closure came on, saved the game, I went upstairs, in less than ten minutes the guy ran his car into my living room," Spencer said, in disbelief.

Spencer says it was like a scene from a horror movie.

"I heard tires screeching and then a loud boom, gas filled the house, it was like a nightmare kind of a scene."

Investigators say the crash was caused by a drunk driver. From the scene from Tuesday night, you can see half of the red car inside Spencer’s home on Colby Street. Staring at the smoking car, parked in his living room, Spencer says he frantically had two things on his mind.

"My first thought was, where is the fire extinguisher, in case the car bursts, the second thought was where is the guy? I looked in the car to see if he was ok and there was no one in the car."

Spencer says the deed on the house says 1812. That getting his home back to its original state could be near impossible.

"The way they built houses in 1812 is not the way well you can still get a house built this way but it’s not common so the materials are hard to come by and the labor is much different than to build a modern home."

Spencer, his wife and their dog were home that night, and they’re all doing ok. The driver of that car was identified as 23-year-old Brockport resident, Justin Flynn. He was arrested for DWI.