DRAPER, Utah — A driver crashed his newly-purchased car through the front door of a Jamba Juice in Draper Friday morning.
READ: Despite pandemic, more people died on Utah roads in 2020 than 2019
No one was injured in the 7 a.m. accident as the store was not scheduled to open for another hour.
Store owner Nathan Bracken told FOX 13 that he received an alert from the alarm company that glass had been broken at the location. When Bracken looked at the security cameras, he was shocked to see a car sitting in the store lobby.
"I thought that maybe someone threw a rock through the window, or maybe someone broke something inside," Bracken said. "I pulled up my security cameras and saw there was a car in the lobby."
According to Bracken, the store manager was running late to work and was not in the building when the crash occurred.
"It went through the window at 7 o'clock, and I would've been standing right there clocking in right when that car came through," said store manager Richard Ramsell. "So, the fact that I was late was very lucky."
Bracken says the male driver of the car had just purchased it Thursday and was unfamiliar with the vehicle.
He has owned the Draper Jamba Juice franchise for two years, and said the last year has been especially tough.
"Through COVID, things haven't been easy over the past year," Bracken added.
"We're fighting. We're fighting hard, but month over month, year over year we are down. We are losing money," Ramsell said. "This is definitely a setback and it's hurting us even more."
The main entrance to the Jamba Juice was destroyed and is now boarded up. Bracken is worried the damage is going to hurt future business.
"Even when we can re-open, our store is boarded up and looks like it's not [open]," he said. "So, it's going to be hard for us for the next couple of weeks."
In order to keep customers coming in, Bracken and Ramsell spent Friday sweeping up glass and preparing to re-open.
"We got this plywood put up, we have two-by-fours hanging on that plywood and we've professionally cleaned the store," Ramsell said. "We are open and ready for business."
Despite all of the setbacks, Bracken remains optimistic.
"We're going to be okay. We're going to pull through," he said. "I just hope that our customers continue to support us while our store looks like this."
Draper Police said the driver of the car was not intoxicated, and so far no charges have been filed.
