ROCKWOOD, Mich. (WXYZ) — It is a building that has stood in the City of Rockwood for more than 100 years and has never seen this type of damage. That is, until this week.
Now a woman is facing charges and a business owner is working to make repairs to a restaurant that so many people love.
The Howsa Bouta Old Tyme Burger Restaurant is in the back and Howsa Bouta Old Tyme Ice Cream Restaurant is in the front of a building on Huron River Drive. The building originally was a bank. It was build strong with two layers of concrete walls. When someone called the owner, Eugene Konkol, early Sunday morning and told him someone crashed through the wall with their vehicle, he didn’t believe it.
“I said, what are you talking about," Konkol recalled. "He said, 'really, you better come down here. I’m not joking,'” Konkol said.
When police got there they say the driver was gone.
“She put the emergency flashers on and left,” Konkel said.
When police ran the plate they saw the registered owner. An officer right away recognized the owner as a woman who had just walked by him with a man before he got called to the scene. She had said hello. She wasn’t at her home. Police found her Monday.
“She denied driving,” said Detective Lt. Steve Mercure of the Rockwood Police Department.
Police say she said she didn’t know where her vehicle was, but didn’t want to file a stolen vehicle report. She wanted to talk to her attorney.
Police say surveillance video shows her leaving the bar next door to the restaurant with a man, then taking off at a high rate of speed. She now is facing charges of reckless driving and leaving the scene of a property damage accident. Customers are relieved when they find out the restaurant is still open while the ice cream shop is repaired.
Konkel says he is just glad it happened when the business was closed so no one was seriously hurt.
“We’re going to be back up and running and everything will be alright,” Konkel said.
