The owner of the Old Strathcona Antique Mall says her shop and customers didn’t skip a beat when a car crashed into the wall of her business on a busy shopping day Saturday.
Betty Reitan said she was in her office upstairs when she heard a loud “thud” at around 11 a.m. before the power in the building went out.
“I came downstairs and as I came downstairs, one of our staff members said, ‘Somebody ran into the building and hit the electrical box.'”
Reitan said she then went outside and saw a BMW that had jumped the curb in the parking lot before running “a good foot-and-a-half” into the building. She added she was surprised the car barely had a scratch on it.
“I’m going to buy myself a BMW one day,” she laughed. “She pushed in a brick wall and yeah, nothing.”
The mall owner said while the vehicle pushed the wall in, it didn’t come right through. Fortunately, nobody – including the driver – was injured.
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“Surprisingly, there was very little reaction to it (the crash) – I mean the people who were close by in that part of the mall certainly were aware of it, but people just kept shopping,” Reitan said.
She said she couldn’t communicate with shoppers through the PA because the power went out so she just walked around telling people what happened. Hand-written receipts had to be used until power was back up and running.
According to Reitan, her landlord called an electrician out right away to restore power and everything will be fine. The part of the mall where the vehicle was struck has been boarded up and is expected to be fixed Tuesday.
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