Three Local Businesses Damaged By Vehicles In One Weekend
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- In three separate incidents over the weekend, local businesses were plowed into by out-of-control drivers.
In Greensburg, a driver damaged part of a wall at a pizza shop during the lunch rush. The owner of a business in Washington was lucky he was not hit when a car took out his store front. And a car ended up all the way inside a store in Monroeville, causing so much damage, it won't reopen for days.
Things could have been a lot worse at Elmer's Aquarium in Monroeville. Typically children like to hang out by a fish pond at the front of the store. Fortunately, that wasn't the case Saturday when a car came crashing through the front of the building and hit into a large shelf around 2 p.m.
Police say an elderly woman was driving a Hyundai Elantra with a passenger in her car, when she plowed through the front of the store. The co-owner of the store says she hit the gas instead of the brake.
"Her car literally came through our front entrance. It smashed a shelving unit in the front and pushed the shelving unit back and pretty much just crashed into the store," co-owner of Elmer's Aquarium Karen Lukacsena said.
Around 50 people were inside at the time of the accident.
"The good news is not one customer got hurt. The people in the car seemed to be okay. Our staff jumped out of the way as the shelving unit came towards them as they were bagging fish," Lukacsena said.
Not one fish was hurt either.
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Around that same time in Greensburg, a driver rammed into the side of My Sister's Bistro on Route 22. Several people were inside at the time, but no one was hurt. The owner of Kelley's Pizza is connected to the same building next door.
"All I know is I was standing in my dining room. I heard a screech. I turned around to look and a backhoe was heading right in the direction of our window and I saw all kinds of debris flying into the air," the owner of Kelley's Pizzeria, Kimberly Kelley, said.
The driver took off but a witness took down the license plate, which helped police track him down.
On Friday, someone crashed into Rhodes Carpet and Installation on South Main Street in the City of Washington, according to the owner's daughter.
She said someone crashed into the business sometime between 8:30 and 9 a.m. Police are looking through surveillance photos to try to identify the suspect. No one was injured.
Elmer's Aquarium will be closed on Sunday. It's unclear if the store will be closed on Monday, but that's when the building inspector will be there to check damage and to make sure the business is structurally sound.