SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) — Just after 11 a.m., a driver mistook the brake pedal for the accelerator and came crashing through a store on Camino Ruiz in Mira Mesa.
The accident was nothing O'Reilly Auto Parts workers had seen before.
"I was getting ready to do a delivery and I just heard a crash. And I turned around and saw all this stuff falling," said one O'Reilly employee.
Regular customers of the store were also stunned.
"Just had it in the wrong gear and put it to the wood or what? Holy cow," said customer Jeff Lind. "And what's funny is that no one was standing there, because this is a very busy store."
San Diego Police said it was a big mistake done by the Chevrolet Tahoe driver, so they sat him down in the patrol car to ask him some routine questions.
"It was an accidental on the pedals - so instead of going forward it went back and unfortunately ended inside the business," said Don Hoff of the San Diego Police.
A tow truck was called out and the store manager said the driver in error said nothing.
"[He was] just a little dazed, a little confused," said the store's assistant manager.
The crash was so hard the SUV bent black metal rails outside the store on the way in. There was much glass to clear out from the store and the Tahoe ended up with flat tires.
"I heard the helicopter above and I saw it was News 8, so I turned on the TV and someone had driven through the front," said customer Gary Krug.
A shock to see for passerby, and then relief for one former employee.
"[I'm] a little shaken that this is where I used to work and hearing that you know there's a Tahoe sitting on aisle 1 kind of makes me glad that I wasn't here on the day that it happened, because it could've been me," said former O'Reilly employee Christian Jordan.
The store was open for business as of Monday evening. No injuries were reported.