An unknown woman smashed her sedan through a bar’s brick wall
Sunday morning, splintering tables and chairs and knocking a
Gilroy’ sports bar out of business minutes before NFL-hungry
patrons arrived for breakfast only to be turned away.
An unknown woman smashed her sedan through a bar’s brick wall Sunday morning, splintering tables and chairs and knocking a Gilroy’ sports bar out of business minutes before NFL-hungry patrons arrived for breakfast only to be turned away.
About 7:40 a.m. Sunday, 20 minutes before Stubby’s Sports Bar & Grill at First Street and Wayland Lane opened, an unlicensed driver parked outside accidentally put a white Nissan Maxima in drive rather than reverse, jumped a curb, squeezed between a tree and concrete bench and smashed through brick and glass. The unknown female driver, a male passenger and employees cleaning and prepping inside all escaped injury, police said.
“It was just unbelievable. The car drove through two layers of brick and glass, and the body was barely scratched,” Stubby’s Owner John Stieber said. “I was at home asleep, but the head chef called and immediately identified that something serious had happened when he was unable to speak.”
The driver did not exhibit signs of intoxication, police said. It was also unclear why the car was parked in the shopping center so early in the morning, when everything is closed except the Gilroy Donut House, which opens at 5 a.m.
“We see this quite a bit actually, someone mistakenly believing their car is in reverse,” police Sgt. Jim Gillio said.
Despite the months of paperwork in front of him, Stieber seemed in good spirits after spending Sunday hauling off two trailers of broken chairs, tables and other dusty junk. By Monday, city inspectors had already signed off on the plywood wall he constructed – on which he spray-painted, “Stubby’s Drive-Thru Coming Soon!”
