Car driver breaks Ten Commandments outside church

A Des Moines woman was sent to the hospital Tuesday after she quite literally broke the Ten Commandments.

A black Toyota Scion sat atop a shattered granite replica of the Ten Commandments, which had adorned the yard outside St. Theresa Catholic Church’s parish office, 1230 Merle Hay Road. The driver, a woman in her 30s, got sick inside her car as she was about to back out of her driveway across the road from the office.

She thought it was in park, Des Moines Police Officer Matt Hunter said, but when she jumped out of the driver’s seat to avoid soiling the car further, the vehicle started rolling backward. The open door knocked the woman down and the car rolled over her leg.

The car miraculously passed through two traffic lanes without hitting anybody and into the middle of the parish office’s yard, laying the monument to rest. Two black tablets, resembling those given to Moses by God in the Bible’s book of Exodus, were shattered beneath the wheels.

The woman suffered an injury to her leg and was transported to Mercy Medical Center. Her condition is unknown.

The parish’s pastor and employees declined to comment for the story but they estimated it would cost $5,000 to replace the Ten Commandments.