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PR woman arrested after driving vehicle into store
Staff Writer A 53-year-old Pine River woman was arrested Wednesday afternoon for drunken driving after she drove her Ford Explorer into the Northern Food King grocery store in Pequot Lakes.
Pequot Lakes Police Chief Jerry Braam said the woman's blood alcohol level was .27, three times the legal limit of .08. The woman was cited and arrested by Pequot Lakes police for gross misdemeanor DWI and was booked in the Crow Wing County jail.
No one, including the woman, was reported injured in the accident. However, a customer walking on the sidewalk outside the store jumped out of the way of the incoming vehicle right before the woman drove into the south wall of the building.
Braam said the accident was reported about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday.
Justin Bolz-Andolshek, who owns NFK with his wife, Kim, said the woman nearly struck him as he walked into the building just minutes before she hit his store. Bolz-Andolshek had just parked his truck and was walking across the store parking lot when the woman drove past him.
"It's like she really didn't recognize there was a pedestrian in the street," said Bolz-Andolshek. "Literally she was driving around in our parking lot and then drove into our store. It was weird."
Bolz-Andolshek said it was the busiest time of the day at the store and the store was filled with customers. He was at the front part of the store when the vehicle drove into the building near the main entrance, pushing in a portion of the wall about 1-1/2 feet. The incident also damaged windows at that southern part of the building but didn't shatter them.
Bolz-Andolshek said after the crash he ran out and opened the woman's car door, asking if she was OK. He said she told him she had a "depth perception problem" and that's when Bolz-Andolshek smelled alcohol on her breath and called police who arrested her at the scene.
A surveillance camera at the store caught the accident on camera, said Bolz-Andolshek. The videotape shows a customer, Lewie Headlee, walking by one of the front windows of the store and less than two seconds later the vehicle hitting the store at the exact spot, he said.
"You see him and then you don't see him," Bolz-Andolshek said of Headlee in the videotape. "He literally jumped out of the way. A second later he would have been hurt. That's how close it was."
Headlee said he had just purchased a couple of bottles and a 12-pack of pop, left the store and was walking on the sidewalk outside the building when he noticed the Ford Explorer attempting to park in an empty space. The vehicle was lining up to pull into the parking space when the driver gunned the engine. At first Headlee said he thought it was someone he knew playing a joke.
"I thought it was someone goofing around," said Headlee. "They did that and I jumped. I took a long step and got out of its path. As I did that it just kept coming."
Headlee said he turned around and felt the breeze as the vehicle drove onto the sidewalk and into the building.
"It was a thrill to say the least," Headlee said. "I'm glad I was looking in that direction because if I wouldn't I wouldn't have gotten away in time."
Headlee said he knows the woman driving the vehicle and hopes she can get help.
Bolz-Andolshek said the incident caused an estimated $5,000 to $10,000 in damage to the store. The wall was boarded up Wednesday and workers have been repairing the damaged wall and windows.
Bolz-Andolshek said what angers him about the situation is not so much the damage to his store but that someone would become so intoxicated and endanger the public by driving.
"It makes you mad because it's 3:30 in the afternoon and someone is that drunk and doesn't seem to have a problem with that," said Bolz-Andolshek.
Bolz-Andolshek said this isn't the first time someone has driven into the grocery store. It's happened a few times throughout the years, he said.
"In a small town we need stuff to talk about," Headlee said Thursday. "We had this to talk about for a while."
JODIE TWEED can be reached at jodie.tweed@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5858.
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