Editor’s note: This story was amended on Sept. 11, 2024 to include new details from police.
The owner of Bradford’s Pet Valu, Jennifer Pegg, spent all day Tuesday picking up the pieces after a male drove a sedan into the front of the store on Monday.
Working off-site at the time, filing payroll and ordering stock, Pegg received a call just before 10 a.m. on Monday morning informing her of what happened, and that thankfully, neither of her two staff, nor the single customer in the store at the time of the crash were injured.
A passerby flagged down officers at 10:04 a.m. on Monday, according to Isabella Soligo of the South Simcoe Police Service, who explained police have identified the driver, who was assessed and cleared on scene by paramedics.
While police declined to comment on the cause of the collision, they said no charges will be laid and they determined no criminal element was involved.
A town official came out to inspect the damage on Monday, but was uncertain about the safety of the building, leading to a temporary closure until Tuesday, when an engineer hired by the landlord was able to make an evaluation and determine it was safe for business, according to Pegg.
“The good news is, a lot of it is just plastic and facade, but he hit it in just kind of the right spot that he took the door and the two windows,” she said.
Since the collision, Pegg said she’s experience an “absolutely phenomenal” outpouring of support from the community, including calls from customers offering to come help with clean up and organization.
“Being here in Bradford, the heartwarming part was the community support. Everybody still rallies around,” she said. “Every time I got one of those phone calls, it made my heart grow.”
The cost to repair the damage to the building has yet to be determined, and for now, Pegg and her team are “meticulously” going through to determine the extent of the damage to products in the store, but by Wednesday, Pegg expects the store to be reopened for its regular hours of 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
