A downtown Magnolia retail staple was the site of a major scare Friday morning after a customer’s SUV jumped the double curb in front of Jennifer’s on the Square and shattered the dress shop’s front display window.
The incident occurred around 10 a.m. Neither the driver of the vehicle nor anyone inside the store was hurt.
On-scene reports indicated that the small, late model black SUV was parking directly in front of the store when the accident occurred. The driver claimed that when she pressed the brake pedal to stop, there was no response. The car then hurdled over a double-stepped curb, through a metal guard rail, and into the shop's eastern, north-facing display window.
Kelli Souter, a longtime employee at Jennifer’s and the only individual inside the building at the time, was away from the storefront when the impact occurred.
“It almost scared me to death,” she said. “I was at the back counter and looked up in shock.”
Souter later noted that a piece of the black, concrete-embedded guard railing hit the window first, but that the car still traveled through the glass and into the retail shop.
Even after the incident, she was still seen visibly shaking from the Friday morning scare.
A Magnolia Police Department officer responded to the accident where he roped off the front shatter area with police tape. The glass was tempered, meaning it crumbled into hundreds of small, hail-like bits upon impact, but sharp shards still hung in the frame of the half-broken glass sheet.
Magnolia Glass and Mirror was quickly called to the scene, where a worker began vacuuming and clearing the area of the accident. He indicated that a new window would be replaced hastily. An outdoor sale rack of clothing, large potted plants, and the window displays were all affected.
The vehicle involved in the incident contained only a few dents on the front hood where it impacted the horizontal portion of the black metal guard rail, but no other major damage could be seen with the naked eye. The MPD officer on the scene informed the driver that she may need to have the car inspected for safety before driving it again. An Arnold-Baker Chevrolet maintenance truck was later seen at the scene replacing the vehicle's front right wheel.
By 11:30 a.m., the SUV was no longer parked in front of Jennifer’s. Police were at the scene for less than an hour, and no one was taken into custody.
The owner of the women's clothing store, Jennifer Hubbard, arrived at her shop after the impact occurred. In signature style, she came with a sense of humor.
“I guess I just missed all the fun,” she said.