Today at work....

Legenae · Post by **Legenae** » November 14, 2005, 1:11 am

(I posted this on my blog but I thought I'd post this bit of "news" here too)

Car crashes through a store...

MY store. Right through the windows and through our seating area then took out our entire history section and the corner of a wall. If she didn't move to the right like she did, she would have driven right into our gas fireplace and caused an explosion. No one was seriously hurt, but 4 people had to be taken away for minor injuries (maybe some broken bones, sprained ankles, etc). I was at work when this happened. A little shaken up, but otherwise I'm ok. It's just so unbelieveable. I'm amazed no one was more seriously injured or killed... especially since she plowed through our seating area.

A few people from work took pictures of the damage, so I'm going to try and get some to post.

We still aren't sure if she was intoxicated. She had three dogs in her car though...

Mr Bacon · Post by **Mr Bacon** » November 14, 2005, 1:16 am

Glad to hear you're okay - but I'm curious, where do you work? You mentioned seating, a history section, and a gas fireplace. I'm guessing a ... library/book store?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 14, 2005, 1:19 am

Legenae wrote: We still aren't sure if she was intoxicated. She had three dogs in her car though...

Hotdogs may make you sick to your stomach but shouldn't affect your driving.

Glad there were no casualties. The pictures would be interesting to see!

Tenuvil · Post by **Tenuvil** » November 14, 2005, 2:10 am

I think I recall Legs saying she works at Borders...

Legenae · Post by **Legenae** » November 14, 2005, 2:37 am

Close... I work at Barnes & Noble.

Real dogs Winnow

I'm going to bring in my camera tomorow as well, though not sure how much will be cleaned up already.

Legenae · Post by **Legenae** » November 14, 2005, 2:50 am

News link:

http://www.ktuu.com/cms/templates/maste ... 2&zoneid=1

This is the only thing I could find at the moment. There will be more on TV tonight and in the paper tomorrow.

Zaelath · Post by **Zaelath** » November 14, 2005, 3:19 am

So, is it just me, or does that Mike Macchio bloke remind you of Jay from Clerks....?

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 14, 2005, 3:35 am

Where's the quote from Legenae in that article calling the driver a "Jackass" and giving a shout out to the VeeshanVault? : )

10,000 VVs to the first person that can get their picture in a news article giving the double peace sign salute seekritly standing for VV - VeeshanVault.

Canelek · Post by **Canelek** » November 14, 2005, 4:12 am

That would actually rock.

PS: Glad you are OK, Legs.

Legenae · Post by **Legenae** » November 14, 2005, 4:24 am

Winnow wrote:Where's the quote from Legenae in that article calling the driver a "Jackass" and giving a shout out to the VeeshanVault? : )

10,000 VVs to the first person that can get their picture in a news article giving the double peace sign salute seekritly standing for VV - VeeshanVault.

LOL.

The next time a car comes crashing through I'll try to remember to do that.

*edit* Here's the link to our paper. http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/72 ... 7102c.html

Going to copy/paste text too because you may have to register or something.

Driver plows into Barnes & Noble

By KATIE PESZNECKER
Anchorage Daily News

Published: November 13, 2005
Last Modified: November 13, 2005 at 09:53 PM

A woman accidentally drove a station wagon through a wall of the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Midtown Anchorage on Sunday afternoon, sending glass, wood and books flying, and causing shrieking shoppers to run for safety.

No was one was hurt badly - an amazing fact, witnesses agreed. Two people were taken to the hospital, according to the Fire Department.

The store was filled with Sunday-afternoon browsers when the Subaru Outback came plowing through picture windows in the reading area, in the store's northwest corner. The car took out the Travel section and barreled some 40 feet through the bookstore before coming to rest in nonfiction.

"I thought it was an earthquake," said shopper Chris Badgett, 27. "There was screaming, people were running. I was running, too."

The driver has not been charged and police had not released her name Sunday night.

It happened around 2 p.m., a peak weekend time inside the sprawling bookstore.

Just before the Subaru hit, Geoff Brosamer was sitting in the reading area - a cozy space with cushy armchairs, reading tables, framed portraits of famous authors, and a faux fire flickering in the hearth.

He wandered over to the checkout counter and asked staff members to announce that his creative writing group would be meeting momentarily in the lounge. He said he walked back to the lounge, looked out the window, and saw the Subaru approaching.

"I saw this car turning, like it was going to go into the parking space," Brosamer said. "And then she just kept going and going."

The Subaru burst into the room - right where Brosamer had been sitting a few minutes earlier. The sound of shattering glass was deafening, witnesses said. People screamed and shrieked and dodged the car as it headed toward the fireplace, jerked right, obliterated shelves of travel books, and smashed into the stacks of the history section.

Shoppers instantly sprung into Good Samaritan mode, said Terise n'ha Caitriona, the store's cafe manager. A retired police officer helped get the woman out of the car. Doctors and nurses who were previously skimming titles and sipping coffee rushed to tend to victims.

There was even a veterinarian on hand who promptly saw to the woman's two large dogs, barking up a storm in the back of the car. The vet took the pups to her animal clinic for safekeeping, n'ha Caitriona said.

"It's Anchorage, and people are like that," she said. "Everyone who could help, helped. People who couldn't got out of the way."

Witnesses said the driver looked to be in her 50s. She told people she'd just taken her dogs for a run and decided to stop by Barnes & Noble on her way home. She seemed to be in shock, several bystanders said.

"She couldn't say if the car malfunctioned, or if she hit the wrong pedal," n'ha Caitriona added.

Police, medics and the fire department were on scene within minutes with multiple fire trucks, rescue vehicles and cop cars. The store's lot looked like the scene of a massive crime.

Sgt. Jeff Morton with the police department dubbed it a "multi-casualty response," since initial reports were someone might be trapped under the car, or maybe got hit hard by the Subaru.

The driver was uninjured, said Tom Kempton, fire department spokesman. Three people were treated for minor injuries, two of them were hospitalized, he said.

The store never closed.

Police swiftly cordoned off the reading area with yellow tape as astonished shoppers crowded up to get a look. Some dumbfounded adults muttered expletives. Children took in the scene with saucer-round eyes.

The crash unleashed literary upheaval - the sort of disorganization that would surely horrify any type-A minded librarian. Books on Mexico and Venice intermixed with volumes on Vietnam and George Washington. Alaska Mileposts mingled with tomes about Spartans and Ancient Rome. Thick texts on the FBI were shuffled among massive Atlases.

Glass sparkled against the carpet. Bulky volumes half-buried bookshelves splintered like dry kindling.

The car didn't look so hot either. Cracks spider-webbed across the windshield. The driver's side mirror? Gone. Long scrapes marred the passenger side, where a deep dent punctuated the panel just above the tire. Books and chunks of glass and the remains of furniture hid the Subaru's hood.

Police and fire crews cleared debris away, while others yanked remaining glass from the Subaru's entry point at the windowed wall. It left a gaping void an estimated 10 feet tall and 12 feet across.

Cops and firefighters pushed the car back through that hole and to the parking lot, where a tow truck would later take it for the police's investigation.

"Right now, all I can say is the vehicle entered from the parking lot," Morton said. "We're taking everything into account at this point. But this wasn't planned and we're investigating it as an accident, not as a criminal act."

The driver was "truly having a bad day," horrified at the idea she might have hurt anyone and badly shaken by how much worse it might have turned out, Morton said.

N'ha Caitriona said she tried to console the woman after the accident. "I told her, 'Look at it this way, they're travel books that aren't selling anyway because it's not tourist season.' "

At least one customer was bummed by the loss.

"Oh my God," 21-year-old Amanda Chriest said, as she crept toward the yellow tape. "I was going to get books for my trip to Germany - and the travel section is gone!"

Elsewhere in the store, it was business as usual. In fact, n'ha Caitriona said, business was slightly up for the day.

"We're actually quite lucky," she said. "Really, it could have been so much worse."

Daily News reporter Katie Pesznecker can be reached at kpesznecker@adn.com.

I saw the news on TV. It showed the car inside the store. Wish I could show you guys how far the car actually came in.

Leonaerd · Post by **Leonaerd** » November 14, 2005, 4:41 am

Winnow wrote:10,000 VVs to the first person that can get their picture in a news article giving the double peace sign salute seekritly standing for VV - VeeshanVault.

Hahaha. I'm drunk enough! But do I have the brains or the balls? No!

Arborealus · Post by **Arborealus** » November 14, 2005, 6:02 am

Legenae wrote: The store was filled with Sunday-afternoon browsers when the Subaru Outback came plowing through picture windows in the reading area, in the store's northwest corner.

Subaru Commercial imminent!

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 14, 2005, 7:15 am

I don't want anyone to think you're throwing down gang signs. Here's some examples of the seekrit VV salute from some of our friends around the world:

edit: removed red x!

Arborealus · Post by **Arborealus** » November 14, 2005, 7:49 am

Amazing that you missed this one Winnow...

eOmniz · Post by **eOmniz** » November 14, 2005, 3:53 pm

Wow, that news site needs a proofreader ><

masteen · Post by **masteen** » November 14, 2005, 4:22 pm

eOmniz wrote:Wow, that news site needs a proofreader ><

You wanna move to alaska and do it?

icknay · Post by **icknay** » November 15, 2005, 5:00 pm

that asian chick in the second pic is hawt

Glad you're ok legs.

Legenae · Post by **Legenae** » November 15, 2005, 5:36 pm

My father-in-law sent me this picture from his newspaper in Connecticut:

<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-1/6 ... cident.jpg" width=700 height=486>

Winnow · Post by **Winnow** » November 15, 2005, 5:50 pm

The car travelled through the travel section and stopped at the non fiction section. With a little work, the writer could have made that part a little more entertaining!

Noysyrump · Post by **Noysyrump** » November 17, 2005, 9:56 pm

They're still not sure if it's a medical condition or if there was a malfunction with the car. Police say they should know more by Monday.

Is stupid a medical condition?

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » November 17, 2005, 10:08 pm

The store never closed.

That's some hardcore bookstore you got there! Question, do you own the store? Or just work there? And I'm guessing you aren't n'ha (awesome name!)

Legenae · Post by **Legenae** » November 18, 2005, 5:16 am

No, I don't own the store. It's not like Tim Horton's when you buy into the franchise. Barnes & Noble is a company. We have a 1 store manager, 2 assistant store managers and several department managers. At the moment I work full time as the Fiction "lead." Next step will be department manager (of course a manager spot has to open up for that to happen - not sure when that will be). I'm just having a blast working there (except when cars crash through the windows). Big change from working in a geological lab.

n'ha Caitriona is not me, but a friend of mine. I believe she said her name is Gaelic - very cool.

We still aren't sure what really happened. I just found out today that the woman is the wife of a judge up here.

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » November 18, 2005, 5:30 am

Alaska sounds a lot like Canada.. would you say that? It definitely sounds like an anomaly compared to the states, much like Hawaii. Working in a book store is probably a pretty sweet gig. Hell I'd love to be working in a bookstore! I was just wondering cause you said "MY store", with my capitalized.. so I was wondering if you owned it as a franchise.

Legenae · Post by **Legenae** » November 18, 2005, 6:11 am

Nah.. I refer to it as MY store since it is the store that I work at.

I think other employees feel the same way ("their store"). After we found out that there were no serious injuries, a few of us just stood there looking at the damage done to "our store." It really is a great (and fun!) place to work (if you like books and working with people - and I work with awesome people). Sometimes you get the rude (and icky) customers, but most of our customers are great.

Alaska is a bit like Canada. It is more expensive to live up here though. The price for houses up here is insane! Anchorage has the worst drivers I have ever seen (and I'm not even talking about the "drive-thru bookstore lady"). It takes a bit to get used to the daylight hours in the summer/winter. There are a lot of (homeless?) people on the streets holding signs asking for food or looking for a rich wife/husband (not kidding). I never used to see that back in Sudbury. Not sure if you get that kind of stuff in southern Ontario.

Alaska's an alright place

It sucks being so far from my family, but this is where I am right now.

*edit* I forgot to mention the moose. There are A LOT of moose up here (and they are always eating my tree in the front yard).

Dregor Thule · Post by **Dregor Thule** » November 18, 2005, 6:44 am

Man, your life sounds like Northern Exposure. THAT IS SO COOL!

Toronto has it's fair share of homeless, but none of them holdins signs look for wives (wtf??). Still, given that I prefer the cold and the fact that it seems a ltitle more like Canada, I'd probably feel prettty at home in Alaska. Plus, MOOSE! That's just totally own.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE!

(I can't feel my body)

Legenae · Post by **Legenae** » December 1, 2005, 4:51 pm

Took long enough but I managed to get a few better pictures.

<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-1/6 ... ident3.jpg" width=300 height=304>

<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-1/6 ... ident2.jpg" width=300 height=239>

<img src="http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-1/6 ... ident1.jpg" width=300 height=273>

Mr Bacon · Post by **Mr Bacon** » December 1, 2005, 4:57 pm

One would think the first reaction upon breaking glass into a store with a car would be to hit the brakes. She went in quite a bit!

Noysyrump · Post by **Noysyrump** » December 3, 2005, 2:09 pm

For some reason old ladies like to put there foot on the gas pedal thinking its the brake, and when they proceed to go faster they freak out and push harder, then after the chaos is over claim they tried to stop the car but it just kept goin! OMG its not there fault they cnat see a damn differance in the pedals...

/sigh

I swear little old ladies do this on a daily basis.

Legenae · Post by **Legenae** » December 3, 2005, 5:00 pm

She wasn't that old. She was about 40 or 50 years old. Some people say they heard she was drunk, one customer said she saw her get into a minor fender bender not 10 minutes before driving into our store. We haven't heard too much since, but we figure that since she is a wife of a judge they are trying not to make a big deal out of it (which sucks, I want to know what happened).

Today at work....

Today at work....

Re: Today at work....