Within days of his pet canary of seven years dying, a Corvette crashed through Rene Zendejas' home, forcing him to miss his birthday dinner.
"Bad things always come in threes," said Zendejas, a puppeteer who has lived in Burbank for 59 years.
Insurance agents are estimating $60,000 in damage to his house.
Pat Leeper, a 63-year-old Burbank resident, crashed his Corvette into Zendejas' home on the corner of Alameda Avenue and South Lamer Street around 7:30 p.m. Sept. 24.
Officials are still waiting on test results to determine Leeper's blood-alcohol level at the time of the accident. He was cited and released on suspicion of drunk driving.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but police officials said Leeper had allegedly been drinking at work.
"The man was not drunk, just disoriented," Zendejas said. "There is no way he was only going 35 miles per hour with the amount of damage he did to the house."