Man denied smokes allegedly rams house

[AmericanManiac]

COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho - A north Idaho man accused of ramming his truck into his estranged wife's home Monday after unsuccessfully demanding that she bring him a cigarette has been arrested, police said. No one was injured.

Eric D. Marienau, 48, of Sandpoint, was jailed for investigation of aggravated assault and driving while intoxicated after Coeur d'Alene police officers were called to his wife's residence in this lakeside resort community.

Caroline Marienau, who said she's in the process of getting a divorce, said Eric Marienau parked his full-size Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck next to her house about 7 a.m., police said.

He went to the home's fence and began shouting for her to bring him a cigarette, Caroline Marienau told police. She said he began pounding on her front door, telling her if she didn't come outside with a cigarette that he would return with his truck and ram her house.

"Eric returned a minute later and rammed the front of the house near the garage area at a high rate of speed. He then backed up and rammed the front of the house at least two more times," Police Sgt. Christie Wood said. "The impact forced a 1993 Ford Ranger that was parked inside the garage to be propelled approximately four feet through a wall into the interior of the bedroom."

Eric Marienau was not immediately reachable for comment and it was not known if he was represented by a lawyer.

Nobody was in the bedroom at the time but the house and both vehicles sustained major damage, police said.

There was a gas canister and gas-soaked rag in the bed of the truck, as well as another gas canister in the truck's cab, at the time of the ramming, police said.