A terrifying Halloween prank on Long Island could have had deadly consequences after a pumpkin was thrown out of a moving vehicle and smashed into the windshield of another car going the opposite direction.
The mangled windshield on Nick Costi’s car tells only part of the 22-year-old's harrowing story. He was driving home early Sunday with his girlfriend when Suffolk County police said someone in a passing car chucked the gourd out of their window.
“As you see by the glass, it's pretty bad damage,” Costi said. “Thankfully it didn't go through the windshield...I'm thankful to be alive.”
Pieces of the pumpkin could be found along Townline Road in Hauppauge on Tuesday, where the car was hit two days prior. Amazingly, neither Costi nor his girlfriend was hurt, although the incident did leave the pair shaken up.
“When I closed my eyes, I really had no idea if I was alive to be honest with you. So I opened them and saw the broken glass and that I was still moving,” Costi said. “I was frightened and managed to pull over right away.”
Costi’s mother expressed hope police would find the person responsible, saying she was “horrified someone would do something like this.”
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
Suffolk police said that if the suspect can be identified, then charges will “definitely” be coming. They're looking for surveillance video they hope will help.
News
This isn't the first such bizarre case on Long Island. Eighteen years ago, a Long Island woman was nearly killed when someone threw a frozen turkey from a moving car onto her windshield. That happened on Thanksgiving Day.
The victim had to have her jaw wired shut and her face repaired with metal. She later wrote a book on forgiveness.
Costi said his father just told him that story, and he’s happy to have avoided a similar fate.
“That could have been me. I'm glad it wasn't,” he said.
