Man charged after parked vehicles, fire hydrant totalled in evening smash-up

• UPDATE: Dean Ruben was convicted of mischief, three counts of failing to comply with a recognizance and operation of vehiclewhile impaired. He was fined and sentenced to 75 days in jail plus a 12-monthprobation and a 10 -year firearms ban.Additional charges were withdrawn or stayed.

A man from Yellowknife is facing a number of charges after allegedly wrecking a parked van and fire hydrant in the FinlaysonDrive area of the city.

Friday, RCMP chargedDean Ruben, 27, with dangerous operation of a vehicle, possessing property obtained by crime and failing to comply with court conditions.

Bradley Fillion and Miranda Booth own the totalled van and another cardamaged in the wreck.

They say someone crashedan SUV intotheir vanand car.Then, they allowed a man claiming to be one of 13 occupants in the vehicle but not the driver into their house to clean up his bloodied face.

They heard the crash while relaxing inside their home around9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"Suddenly [there was] this huge, large crashing sound outside our bedroom window," Booth said.

Her partner Fillion went outside to investigate.

Fillion said it looked like someone had "smashed the van, which hit into the car, which went into our neighbour's lawn."

The car nearly crashed into their neighbour's home, he said.

"It was definitely strange to see both of our vehicles pushed something like five or six meters over into the neighbour's yard," Booth said.

"[There were] pieces of the bumper broken off, all the windows on one side of our van were completely collapsed.It was a very intense scene to walk out into late at night."

The couple says both their vehicleswere totalled in the crash.

They say a man who had come out of the SUV that initiated the chain reaction was spitting blood. They took him into their house where he stayed in their bathroom until police arrived.

The man then left with police.

Booth said the man claimed he was not behind the wheel, and that there had been 13 other occupantsin the vehicle with him.

Fillion and Booth say they only saw the one manat the scene ofthe accident. RCMP alsoallegeRuben was the driver of the SUV.