Firstly, the event that brought this letter about took place on 03/28/2008 at 7:30 pm. The Jeep Commander I own smashed into my house. We began bbq-ing about 6:00 pm. While the food was cooking we sat in my Jeep with the doors open and engine off. (the porch was wet) after the food was done, I took it inside and my 6 year old son dylan stayed outside to play for a few more minutes. Dylan was in the front seat pretending to drive. The keys to the vehicle were inside the house and we live on a secluded piece of land in the country, so I saw no harm in this. However, a few minutes later when I heard a crash and felt my house move, I had second thoughts! at first I didn't actually realize what had happened; I was searching the house for what could have caused such a racket. Then my son came in the house hysterically crying. All he could manage was, 'the car, the car'. at first I thought he meant a toy car and then as I rushed outside to find the cause of his hysteria I discovered my Jeep had crashed into my house. As I was stunned and staring at the unbelievable site before me, my son was still panic-stricken and sobbing. I thought at first that he had taken my keys and started the car, but the car wasn't running and I found my keys neatly on their hook, as always. Dylan couldn't make any functional sentences to explain what happened so I began to investigate. I found the gearshift in reverse, but there were no keys in the car. Since I had retrieved my keys, I backed the car up to its usual position to check out the damage. I continued my investigation and found that even with no key in the ignition and no foot on the brake, the gearshift would easily shift from park to any other gear. So due to this malfunction, dylan's innocent pretend 'driving' became real and resulted in a real accident that could have seriously injured him or one of my other children and did real damage the vehicle as well as my house.

- Brenham, TX, USA