Cars careen through store windows and front yards

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A car slammed into two adjacent businesses on Riverdale Avenue, and another ploughed through the front lawns of several residential buildings just down the road in two separate incidents within one day.

No injuries were reported, but some people living or working in the area said they were startled by the bizarre string of incidents occurring at nearly the same location within a few hours.

A 2004 Honda sedan smashed into the storefront window of Exclusive Properties Sotheby’s International Realty, located at 3732 Riverdale Ave. near W. 238th Street, at 12:10 p.m. on Aug. 10.

Security video footage from YoBurger, which is further down the street, showed the car heading toward an on-street parking spot, but instead of stopping at the curb, the car speed up and rolled across the wide sidewalk to smash into a building.

The 79-year-old driver said he thought he pressed the brake, but stepped on the gas instead, according to a police report obtained by The Press. The driver was sober at the time of the incident.

Vasco Da Silva, a managing partner at Sotheby’s, said the driver “was an elderly gentleman who was trying to park in an open space in front of the meter.”

“He didn’t hit the meter. He didn’t hit the [nearby] post. He just drove through,” according to Mr. Da Silva, who came to the office after hearing about the crash.
Security video showed a police officer and another man running out of a nearby building and hurrying toward the crash site.

“The good thing, coincidentally, is that there were two police officers at Salvatore’s [of Soho restaurant] and they witnessed it and they were the police officers that did the report and everything,” Mr. Da Silva said.
Sotheby’s associate broker Ellen Feld said she was walking toward her desk near the storefront when the car smashed through the window.

“I just heard this boom and shattering glass,” Ms. Feld said. “I was two to three feet from where the glass was shattered.”

On a typical day, people often stand outside the real estate agency’s storefront to read the listings posted on the window, but no one was there at the time of the crash.

“That’s the most incredible thing,” Ms. Feld said, adding she also felt lucky to avoid any injuries.
Her colleague Ardit Gjonaj, the only other person who was at the office at the time of the incident, said he was replying to an email, in the back of the office, when he heard the crash: “It was like a screeching loud noise,” he said.

“I stepped out to look and I see Ellen jumping and I run towards the front,” Mr. Gjonaj said. “We were just shocked.”

A portion of the shattered storefront has been sealed off, and Mr. Da Silva said the company remains open for business.

The front gate at Grace’s Cleaners, located in an adjacent building at 3734 Riverdale Ave., also suffered some damage in the same incident. The gate has since been repaired, said owner Gary Kim.

Another car crashed into the front door of a residential building on Riverdale Avenue between W. 235th and 236th streets, after running over the lawns of adjacent houses during the incident that occurred at around 2 a.m. on Aug. 10.

“One of our tenants texted us a picture early the next morning, that she heard a crash and the middle of the night and she thought that someone crashed on Riverdale Avenue. She didn’t think that was into the house,” said landlord Greg Kochanov of Moda Realty, who owns the home and rents it out.

A trail of damage left by the car indicated that “it didn’t just veer off the road and smash into a house. They ran over every front yard in every house adjacent to ours,” Mr. Kochanov said.

The front door of his house was protected by a large metal gate, which kept the car from inflicting more damage.

The crash “completely destroyed the front door,” Mr. Kochanov said. “And they destroyed the door that was protecting the gas line into the house… It kind of saved
the house.”

There were approximately 4-feet-tall silver poles installed to protect gas lines, Mr. Kochanov said, adding: “The poles actually did [their] job.”
George Pong, who lives on the block, said the crash also left tire marks on his front lawn and debris from the car.

“It was a Toyota,” he said. “The reason why I know is that the medallion or the sticker was down on the ground over there.”

He called the case a “freak accident,” adding: “It’s the first time that a car’s come up this way.”

Another resident on the block, Debra Anderson, said she was “surprised that this doesn’t happen more.”

“They call this [area] the ‘Riverdale swing,’” she said. “I’m nervous because people are not cognizant of how they turn.”

Mr. Kochanov asked anyone who might have information leading to the culprit to call 718-986-6431.

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Correction: An earlier version of this misspelled the last name of a resident who lives on the block. His name is George Pong, not Pont.
The phone number provided at the bottom of an earlier version of the article listed the incorrect area code. The correct phone is 718-986-6431.

 

Sotheby's International Realty, Grace's Cleaners, Moda Realty, Lisa Herndon

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