the commotion?
It ended up being a 1990 Lexus LS 400 that had crashed through the front of Rich’s shop and was now sitting half in and out of his front window, teetering below an inadvertently descriptive neon sign that read: "Autobody and collision. Free estimates." (Irony at its best.) The driver of the wayward Lexus was a doctor who’d been daydreaming — let’s hope she doesn’t do that during surgery! — and hit the gas instead of the brake.
As Rich ran to the front of his shop and saw the car sitting beneath all that splintered glass, he feared for the two people inside of the vehicle.
"They wanted to get out," Rich says. "But we’re saying, ‘No, no, no. Don’t get out of the car.’ There was jagged glass above them, and all they needed was to open up their door, and that thing would have come down like a guillotine."
To avoid such a headache, Rich called the police. When emergency services arrived, they covered the car with towels, broke the jagged glass above and — two hours later — rescued the woman and her daughter.
"Thank God nobody was hurt," says Rich, who despite the ordeal, appreciates the irony of a car crashing through his shop and adds, "But it’s funny."
Even funnier, after the insurance company totaled the car, Rich — who just so happened to be in the market for a vehicle — ended up buying the dreamy doctor’s Lexus for himself.
"I would’ve preferred a two-door," says Rich, who, on second thought adds, "I would’ve rather had the repairs — at least I would’ve made some money!"
Writer Mike Lawrence is the former associate editor of BodyShop Business. Despite his recent departure, he can’t seem to get his mind off collision repair.
