Veterinary staff thankful no one was harmed after car crashes into office

Caught on camera: an out-of-control driver comes flying into a veterinarian’s office, leaving nothing left of the front desk in the lobby.

The wild crash happened Tuesday night in Lehigh Acres. The car was so smashed up that the driver had to be pulled out through the trunk.

When Dr. Ernest Blum got the call a car drove through his business, “I didn’t think it was going to be such a big deal,” he said. “And then I got here and it was like ooh, that car shot through this building like a bullet!”

A bullet shattering glass, drywall and just about everything in its path.

“This is usually what we do when we have pets that pass away,” said Paola Barrientos as she pulled a framed paper from the rubble. “We do paw prints for them and unfortunately, it’s not good anymore.”

“It is…going to set us back a touch,” Blum said. “But you know what? He wiped out half the building, we still have the other half of the building.”

That half is important because that’s where all of the precious cargo lives; all except one little guy who narrowly escaped the crash.

“That’s a little gecko,” Blum said. “Actually he’s a big gecko. And so, that car came crashing through, the only animal up that far with him and he made it.”

While the staff at My Pets Vet is very shaken up, the pets they care for are spooked for sure.

But in this mess, a prayer of thanks. “I give thanks to God,” said Lidia Valdez.

“[I’ve been] doing this for almost 38 years now, and honestly, there’s a lot of sadness in this business,” Blum said. “People think we play with puppies and kittens all day…doesn’t happen. Know what? When something like this happens, and there’s no harm to anybody’s life and limb or whatever, it’s a big deal, but it’s not that big of a deal.”

We still do not know what led the man to drive through the shop but we do know that he was taken to the hospital Tuesday night and has been issued a notice to appear in court.