A car swerved off the road and blew through the front entrance of a Home Hardware store in Saskatoon on Friday.
It happened around 1:30 a.m. CST on Central Avenue in the Sutherland neighbourhood.
The Saskatoon Fire Department was first to respond to the scene. Firefighters discovered a car inside of the store, in the spot the front tills used to be. They assessed the damage, and ensured the car was not running or leaking fluids.
Nobody was found inside, but security cameras caught the culprits fleeing the area. No arrests have been reported as of yet, and police say they are still investigating.
Store owner Wyatt Zacharias said he got a call from police, and arrived at the scene around 3:30 a.m. CST to find the entrance to his business in shambles.
“I’m very thankful this was after hours while we were closed,” he said. “It could have been devastating if people would have been in the building, or if I would have had one of my employees.”
Zacharias said he’s happy everyone is safe.
“Looks like, from the surveillance footage, even the driver and the passenger seemed like they were unharmed, which is a good thing in the light of all of this. Stuff is easy to replace, as long as the people are OK.”
Zacharias pointed out a detail from the security video that hints at the driver being intoxicated.
“We could see they actually went back to the car to get their beer,” he said. “After they had left the building, we found evidence of beer cans and stuff strewn all over the store.”
Zacharias got his construction crew there in just three and a half hours. Despite the destruction, they were able to open up shop at 8 a.m., like any other day.
“We have the front of the store patched up already and we managed to put together a quick till system, because they took out both of our tills in the front of the store,” Zacharias said. “We also have our construction side of the business, Zak’s Building Group. I was able to call some of my construction crews and get them here bright and early to start getting this fixed up.”
As for more permanent repairs, Zacharias said it will likely take a minimum of two months, and cost between $30,000 and $40,000. He said support from the customers and community was immediate.
“It’s truly amazing, we’ve already even had some neighboring businesses stop by and offer to help and support, and some have dropped off doughnuts and stuff,” said Zacharias. “It’s amazing and it makes us love doing what we do even more, just to know that we’re building these relationships in our community with great people.”
