A California driver narrowly escaped death after a giant boulder tumbled down a hillside in Malibu and crushed his car Tuesday.
The close call took place in the 20000 block of Pacific Coast Highway, where Mauricio Henao had parked his Toyota Prius across from his house.
Just moments after he stepped out of the vehicle to take a phone call, he said, he heard a loud noise and saw a 4-foot boulder smashing through the hatchback’s roof and coming to rest in the driver’s seat.
“The rock is the size of the whole hood,” Henao told the station KTLA. “The windshields are all broken and the frame of the car is just all twisted.”
The car owner believes that the phone call that had prompted him to get out of the car in the nick of time ultimately saved his life.
“My girlfriend called me and said, ‘Hey, can you get my bag that I left there’ so I went back inside and I heard rumbling outside,” Henao separately told ABC 7.
The Toyota Prius was parked in the 20000 block of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu when rocks came down the hillside. KTLA
This 4-foot boulder landed directed on Henao’s car, completely crushing its roof. KTLAAfter the ordeal, Henao took a grinning selfie with his mangled car in the background, but he admitted that the incident was no laughing matter.
“I’m pretty shook up,” said Henao. “Honestly, I don’t think I’ll park here again after this. I’m a little traumatized by this whole ordeal.”
Henao likened his brush with death to a plotline from the “Final Destination” horror movie franchise, but on a lighter note, he suggested that his lucky escape could be a good omen.
Henao said he was left shaken and traumatized by his very close call. KTLA
Just moments early, Henao had exited the car to take a call from his girlfriend asking him to grab her bag from their home. KTLA“I feel like I should play the Lotto,” he said.
No injuries were reported as a result of the incident, but another parked car sustained damage from falling debris.
The hulking rock came down as Southern California was dealing with the aftermath of relentless storms that caused deadly floods, mud- and rockslides, and sinkholes in the region.
