Suspected drunk hit-and-run driver crashes into Colorado record store
An early morning crash near Denver has left the front of a popular record store destroyed and now a man is in custody, accused of having been drunk when he crashed into Chain Reaction Records before allegedly fleeing the scene.
The store's owners posted photos of the damage, which was so extensive, the front of the store needed to be boarded up.
The Lakewood Police Department says 47-year-old Christopher Sprout was behind the wheel when he drove into the store, located at 8799 West Colfax Avenue, around 1:30 a.m. and then fled. Investigators followed tire tracks that led away from the scene to West Estes Street and West 20th Avenue, a residential area.
It wasn't immediately clear if weather also played a role in the crash and Lakewood police initially said no one was injured, but Sprout is now facing charges of driving under the influence, careless driving, failure to provide insurance, hit and run and failure to notify police or remain on the scene of an accident, according to Jefferson County Jail records.
A man with the same name and age as Sprout pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide in 2007. According to a Denver District Attorney's Office news release from 2008, he was drunk when he struck and killed 24-year-old Kevin Watt after a Colorado Rockies game. Sprout served 90 days in jail, court records show.
Josh Lent, co-owner of Chain Reaction Records, said he was awoken around 3 a.m. by Jefferson County sheriff's deputies who told him someone had crashed into his shop.
"I said, 'what!?' so I had to book down here as fast as I could," he told CBS News Colorado. "Some drunk dude just bookin' down Colfax, can't make the turn here, takes out the light pole, pops over the curb right here, through the bricks, through the cinder blocks and probably about 12 feet into the store. Loses part of his bumper in the store, jams it into reverse, backs out."
Lent said the store suffered structural damage, as well as damage to some of the merchandise.
One contractor told him it will take months to repair.
"I was just in shock," he said. "We just had to sit here and wait as we went back and forth with the landlord. Just shock."
He estimated the merchandise losses alone at thousands of dollars, not counting the structural damage and wage losses for their employees.
"We're gonna be closed for some undetermined amount of time," he said. "Really thankful to the community that- just a ton of support."
As he was waiting around for contractors and his landlord to coordinate a plan for moving forward, Lent said he didn't know if he should throw in the towel, but he started deleting photos and videos on his phone to make space as the storage was getting low. But he saw photos of his son and friends working there, various events and bands performing at the store and said he couldn't close.
"We're gonna reopen. Whether it's gonna be a week, two weeks, two months," Lent said. "I'm just so appreciative to everyone who texted and rached out on social media, offering to send coffee, send burritos ... This is our 10th year, we're supposed to be celebrating and so maybe there's a silver lining in this."
