A Gillette woman said she thought someone had died Tuesday night when she heard screeching tires followed by a tremendous rumble outside her home.
Christina Wright walked onto her deck to find a pickup in her yard after it had crashed through a 4-foot-tall stone wall, taking out a street sign, Stop sign and fire hydrant along the way.
Inside the pickup, Wright said, was a woman holding a little girl on her lap and a young boy in the back seat. The driver, identified as Andrew Ruth, was standing outside.
Miraculously, Wright said, nobody appeared to be hurt.
"Not a one of them had a scratch on them," Wright told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday morning. "It is a miracle."
The crash happened at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday along 4-J Road in Gillette, Wright said.
"I thought someone died," she said. "Honestly, I was scared to look outside because of the screeching tires and then the sound. I literally thought we were gonna find somebody in the road."
It hadn't even occurred to her that a vehicle had crashed through her property.
"I just knew that something had been hit, and I really expected to find someone severely injured, if not worse," she said.
pickup sits amid the remains of a roughly 4-foot stone wall after crashing into Christina Wright’s Gillette yard Tuesday evening. Wright said the truck tore through the wall after leaving 4-J Road in Gillette. (Christina Wright Photo) 
Gillette police respond after a pickup crashed through a stone wall and into Christina Wright’s yard Tuesday evening. Wright said two children and a woman were riding in the pickup with driver Andrew Ruth, and no one appeared to be injured. (Christina Wright Photo) 
pickup sits amid the remains of a roughly 4-foot stone wall after crashing into Christina Wright’s Gillette yard Tuesday evening. Wright said the truck tore through the wall after leaving 4-J Road in Gillette. (Christina Wright Photo) 
The pickup sustained significant damage after plowing through the heavy stone wall surrounding Christina Wright’s Gillette property Tuesday. Large sections of the wall were knocked apart and scattered across the yard. (Christina Wright Photo)
A Woman, Two Kids
Looking down from the deck, Wright called down to them.
"My first question was, 'Are you hurt? Are you OK?'" she said.
The woman told her they were.
Wright said she was later told Ruth was driving erratically along 4-J Road, traveling about 60 mph.
An ambulance and fire truck had passed Wright's home, she said, for a separate incident. Wright said she was told Ruth was traveling in the center turn lane and passing traffic.
The woman traveling with Ruth later told Wright he was angry and "showing off for her," Wright said.
Ruth was arrested and remained in the Campbell County jail Wednesday morning.
Campbell County Circuit Court confirmed Ruth was scheduled to make his initial appearance Wednesday afternoon.
The pickup sustained significant damage after plowing through the heavy stone wall surrounding Christina Wright’s Gillette property Tuesday. Large sections of the wall were knocked apart and scattered across the yard. (Christina Wright Photo) 
A “NO MOTOR VEHICLES” sign remained standing beside the path of destruction after a pickup crashed through Christina Wright’s stone wall and into her Gillette yard Tuesday evening. (Christina Wright Photo)
Through The Wall
The chest-high stone wall serves as a fence around Wright's property.
After the pickup tore through the wall, it didn't stop.
"He wiped out the sign that said the 4-J and 10th Street," Wright said. "He took out the Stop sign, and he took out the fire hydrant."
One of Wright's photographs shows the toppled fire hydrant beneath the pickup after it came to rest in the yard.
The truck was also left running after the crash, Wright said, and began smoking. The woman in the passenger seat eventually shut it off, but not before antifreeze leaked "all over the place."
"It's all in our yard. It's everywhere, all over the rocks," she said, which prompted a stressful rescue effort involving a neighborhood cat.
Because antifreeze can attract animals, Wright worried the cat might lick it.
"Even though it's not my cat, I still don't want it to die," she said.
The family tried to get the cat into a carrier so it could be taken to a shelter, but the cat wouldn't fit and eventually had to be let go, she said.
Amid the destruction, however, one sign survived.
Right next to the demolished section of wall stood a sign reading: "NO MOTOR VEHICLES."
"He missed that sign," Wright said with a laugh. "It's still standing."
Wall Has To Stay
For Wright, the stone wall isn't merely decorative.
She and her husband moved into the home in January 2025 and later learned the wall was grandfathered in under existing property rules, she said.
Wright said her understanding is that if the wall is removed, city right-of-way requirements would prevent them from rebuilding it in the same location and effectively take away much of the front yard they now use.
"It is imperative that that rock wall stay up," she said.
That leaves the Wrights trying to determine how to reconstruct a substantial section of stone wall while dealing with the rest of the damage left behind — and Wright said they've learned Ruth did not have vehicle insurance.
"We're going to call when we get home our homeowner's insurance," she said Wednesday morning while she and her husband were outside the police station.
Her husband was back inside hoping to get more information about the driver.
Greyhound Bus Back to Wisconsin
She said Ruth and the woman were from Wisconsin and that the woman described Ruth to her as her boyfriend.
After the crash, Wright gave the woman and the two children a ride to what she understood was one of Ruth's relatives' homes.
Then Wednesday morning, Wright got back in the car with them.
"We took her and the kids to the Shell station this morning so that they could catch the Greyhound bus back to Wisconsin," she said.
The girl told Wright she was 4½ years old. Wright initially thought the boy was about 6.
He was 10.
Ruth's formal charges were not yet available from the court Wednesday morning.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
