A black Mercedes sedan crashed into the first floor of 61 Edgewood Ave., smashing the front staircase and leaving a five-foot-tall hole, around 12:30 Monday morning.

Although the car had a New Haven Police Department decal on the driver’s side passenger window, an NHPD spokeswoman could not confirm that the car was stolen. The house is occupied by Yale students and employees of Gourmet Heaven on Broadway.

Minutes after the crash, 61 Edgewood Ave. residents Benjamin Colman ’08 and Laura Gehring ’08 stood outside their house.

Gehring said she was sitting by the window on the second floor of the house when she heard a loud boom. Gehring and Colman said they went outside to find the car, with the driver still sitting in it, wedged into the side railing of the staircase leading up to the front door.

A New Haven firefighter at the scene said the driver did not sustain any major injuries.

From the back seat of an NHPD squad car, the driver — who said he is a resident who lives in the area — said the wheels and brakes of the car had jammed, causing him to lose control.

“This has never happened to me ever in my life,” the man said.

The man said he had borrowed the car from a friend in order to buy groceries at a nearby store.