THIEVES lost control of a stolen dumper truck and smashed it into a woman's garage in Ferryhill.

The machine plunged into the site of Ann Bell's garage after it careered off Skipton Road around midnight on Saturday.

The garage has only recently been rebuilt after youths rammed a stolen car into it.

Mrs Bell said: "When I heard the noise I thought it was a helicopter. Then there was a clatter and here's the dumper. Luckily, the car was in the yard.

"It will be the second time the garage has been demolished. Kids rammed through it with a car almost five years ago.

"It's the most unlikely place for it to happen. I don't live on a corner or anything. It is along a back street which has a dead end.

"If I didn't have a garage it would have been straight through my patio doors."

The vehicle was stolen from a secure compound near Ferryhill Leisure Centre, owned by a contract firm which is fitting a new drainage system in the street.

The truck could not be removed until the garage had been shored up, about 12 hours later.

Mrs Bell said people on the estate were considering setting up an action group to try to solve the nuisance problems plaguing residents.

She said: "I've just spoken to workmen who said they have tried to stop the kids playing where they are carrying out work, but they just ignore them. The workmen are finding it hard to work down here. They are just wrecking the place."

Newton Aycliffe police said they were investigating the theft.