‘Ain’t no way’: Chesterfield O’Reilly employee recounts car crashing into auto shop

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — A routine workday turned into a scene out of a movie for a Chesterfield County O'Reilly Auto Parts employee after a car crashed into the store on Monday.

Tabyas Epps, a retail associate at the auto shop on Midlothian Turnpike, said he had never seen anything like it.

"My assistant manager had told me to come back to do something real quick," Epps said. "And then, like, five minutes later, a car was in the middle of the store."

According to Epps, a Jeep plowed through the front of the business on Monday, March 16. While the crash caused significant disruption and damage to the building, no customers were inside at the time.

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"It did take a minute for me to process," Epps said. "I was like, 'Ain't no way that this just happened, because this is like something you see off the movies.'"

No one, including the driver, was hurt, the Chesterfield Police Department said.

"He said he was okay," Epps said of the driver. "He just hopped out of the car like it was nothing. I was like, ‘Dang, did it hurt or anything like that?’"

According to police, the driver told officers that they were picking up food at another business in the same shopping center when the accelerator became stuck, sending the vehicle into the store.

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In the aftermath, employees have been working to restore order inside the shop. Epps said some of their inventory was damaged by the crash. Staff are now focused on reorganizing and restocking.

"Right now, we’re just getting everything reprocessed and scanning everything back in," he said. "We’ve got some shelves coming in so we can put everything back up."

Despite the damage, the store remains open to customers -- but the area where the vehicle entered is still blocked off as repairs continue.

It's unclear if the driver is facing charges. 8News has reached out to Chesterfield Police for more information. An update will be provided when possible.