Greensboro Reporter

McKay’s Bookstore on Battleground Avenue in Greensboro didn’t have a happy New Year’s Day.

Early Sunday morning, a vehicle crashed into the building, but fortunately no one was injured and the business wasn’t damaged to the point where it was forced to close until repairs could be made.

Assistant manager Joe Blondino was called and informed about the wreck Sunday morning.

"Normally we get an alarm called like that, it's someone breaking in through the side door, but this is definitely the first vehicular incident we've had,” Blondino told WFMY 2 News. "I was the first manager to respond to the incident. I was actually sleeping when it happened.”

Upon his arrival at the store, he noticed shattered glass and books strewn across the store. No employees were injured because the accident happened when the store was closed.

“No one got hurt,” Blondino said, according to WFMY 2 News. “It was at 3:30 in the morning, so no employees were here. The young man (the driver of the vehicle) was also unfazed, so that’s good.”

Most of the damage was to the purchasing counter, and the store was able to open as normal this week. Blondino said he was grateful for that, since the weeks after Christmas are some of the busiest of the year for the store.

"You would think the first week of Christmas would be the busiest week, but really it's the weeks after Christmas that are even busier,” he told WFMY 2 News. “Kids are out of school, people have gift cards that they want to spend, they have Christmas money they want to spend. So the week after Christmas, they kind of swamp us and buy all the cool stuff up." 

Blondino said he expected the buying counter to reopen soon and the debris from the crash to be cleaned up later this week.

"We're waiting on the glass people to get back to us,” he said, according to WFMY News. “They may be a couple of days, but hopefully during the week we will get this looking pretty again."