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December 21, 2006

Update: Jeep crashes into holiday party store / Video

Journal photo / Sandor Bodo
Cleanup was under way at the Let's Party store today after the crash last night left holiday decorations and displays strewn over the store's front.

CUMBERLAND – Party manager Katie Cournoyer won’t let a little girl’s birthday party tonight at the Let’s Party store be ruined just because a Jeep Grand Cherokee plowed through the store late last night and wiped out the store’s candy, Christmas and New Year’s aisles.

Watch the surveillance video of the crash. (20 sec.)

The party is on – “because there’s no sense having a little girl’s party crushed right before Christmas,” Cournoyer said.

As potential shoppers have been calling this morning to see if the store has certain items, Cournoyer says she has told them, “Yeah, if you jump over the debris, you can come and get it.”

Store owner Russell Scharf said he’s devastated by the damages – which he estimates at $40,000 to $70,000. Oddly, a deer plowed through the plate-glass front window of this same store on Jan. 19, 2003, Scharf said.

“He came in through the ‘in’ door,” Scharf said. “And so did the Jeep.”

A little luck shone on Scharf last night – he had left his prized 1966 Chevy Nova in the parking lot because he was working at a new store location in Chepachet last night and planned to go back over to the Cumberland shop late last night and get the car his father bought when it was brand-new.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson  at 2:29 PM | Permalink

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