Some days, it would just be better to browse the catalogue and shop from home.
At 3:20 p.m., February 5 a car crashed through the front window of the River Rat Treasures/Sears store in the Iroquois Plaza.
Staff are counting themselves lucky.
Store employee Evonne Delegarde was alone in the store when the 1992 Chevy Corsica, driven by an Iroquois resident, smashed into the building. Thankfully, she was not sitting at the Sears travel desk, which is located right where the car impacted the building.
“Thank God I was not sitting at the travel desk, which I often do. We all do,” said Delegarde, who a day later was still in disbelief of what had happened.
Delegarde had come in that afternoon to cover for fellow employee Carol Merkley, who had to leave early for an appointment.
Merkley most often sits at the travel desk, and was sitting there only minutes before the crash occurred.
“If Evonne had been only a couple of minutes later arriving, I would have still be sitting at that desk when the car came through that window, and I would have been hit,” said Merkley.
When Delegarde arrived, she decided to do some work behind the counter.
That’s where she was when the car hit.
“I heard a vehicle accelerate, and then the glass shattered and flew everywhere,” said Delegarde. She estimated that the glass flew about 10 feet.
Luckily, none hit her.
The force of the impact pushed the brick wall under the window inward, bowing the wall inside.
According to Delegarde, the driver’s foot had slipped off the brake and onto the gas pedal, driving her forward into the building.
“Both passenger side tires ran right over the curbing,” she said.
“The driver of the car was not injured, no one was walking on the sidewalk and I was away from the window,” said Delegarde.
Police did attend the scene, however did not choose to lay any charges against the driver.
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