Car splits in half in accident, driver disappears

A car split in half after hitting a power pole on Sunday morning in Des Moines, Iowa, and police say there is no sign of the driver and few clues as to who even owns the car, KCCI reports.

Police received an anonymous tip about the accident at around 3:45 a.m. Sunday. They arrived on the scene and found the car severed in two, with the back end of the red Pontiac Grand Am completely destroyed. The front end, however, was surprisingly well intact.

"The front doors, I was told, actually could be opened and closed without a problem. Given that information, it's not totally unlikely someone could have walked away from that accident," police spokesman Sgt. Jason Halifax told KCCI.

WHOTV.com reported that police searched the area for signs of the driver, but found none, and that the investigation is ongoing. "They searched the area for well over an hour, had a dog come in, the dog wasn’t able to find anything," Halifax said.

Police also checked local hospitals for anyone who might have injuries related to a car crash. That effort came up empty, too, according to WHOTV.com.

"What the officers do now is they go to that last person who had the vehicle registered to them and basically ask them, 'Where’s the car now? What did you do with the car? Did you sell it, loan it out? What happened with it?'" Halifax told WHOTV.com.

Police say the car didn't have license plates when it was discovered. Its last registration expired August 2012.

"I’ve never seen anything like this," Adam Garris of G & S Services, the company that towed the 2000 Pontiac Grand Am, told WHOTV.com. "That’s definitely one of the craziest accidents, one of the worst accidents I’ve seen."

UPDATE: Sgt. Halifax told Yahoo News that police have located the owner of the car. The owner told police she fell asleep and suspects a house guest took the car out without her permission. Halifax said the woman would not tell police who was in her house or who might have taken her vehicle.