A dog caught illegally driving a pickup truck that smashed into an O’Reilly Auto Parts store will not be charged with any driving violations, say Springdale, Ark., police. The owner of the truck opted not to press charges against the offending canine.
Police say the owner of the truck, Michael Henson, entered the parts store located at 800 Sunset Ave. at approximately 10:15 a.m. to purchase parts for a sticking throttle. He left the truck running while his two Blue Heelers waited for him in the front seat.
After selecting the carburetor parts he needed, Henson was completing the transaction at the front checkout counter with clerks Josh Hopper and Kelly McCawley when they observed the vehicle heading for the store’s front window. One of the dogs was behind the wheel.
“I guess one of them got too close to the gearshift,” says McCawley. “They got real excited and one of ’em jumped up and hit the gearshift, and it just came a-barrelin’ through the window.”
Says Springdale police Sgt. Billy Turnbough: “The guy says he was standing there, looked up and saw his dog driving his truck through the building.”
Hopper, the other clerk, says he didn’t see the crash — since he was completing the transaction at the time — but he heard the crash. When he looked up, a “truck was in the window,” Hopper says. “His front left tire just made it onto the brick wall.”
No one was hurt, and surprisingly little damage was done.
“It just knocked out a couple panes of glass and the divider between them,” says McCawley. “It did absolutely nothing to his truck. Nobody was hurt, but it did do a little bit of inventory damage.”
Police did consider writing a citation but weren’t sure how to go about doing it — since the dog doesn’t have a driver’s license.
Writer Bob Bissler is managing editor of BodyShop Business.
