A birthday celebration ended with a joyride, a crash and a hit-and-run driver.
A young woman, celebrating her birthday at an Ocean Beach Bar, was riding in a Mini Cooper when it crashed into a retaining wall at the corner of Beryl and Haines.
Behind the wheel of the Mini Cooper was a young man whom the victim had apparently just met
.
Officers say it's possible she had too much to drink and handed over the keys to let him drive.
Pacific Beach residents say they heard the high revs of an engine and a car traveling at a high rate of speed.
The Mini Cooper’s driver failed to stop at a stop sign and 50 feet later crashed into the retaining wall.
Before police or authorities arrived, the man disappeared.
Witness Mark Kruse said he saw the driver. One second he was there and then as the neighbor was helping the victim in the passenger seat, the next second the driver was gone.
Local
“If I had known he was going to leave I would have like pressured him, spoken with him to try and detain him as best I could,” said Kruse.
The woman was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla for non-life threatening injuries.
Police are still looking for the man who was behind the wheel.
