LAURINBURG – The Main Table restaurant got its own drive-thru of sorts when a Laurinburg woman plowed her vehicle into the business over the Memorial Day weekend.
Police say Lakeisha Mason, 33, of Willow Drive, drove a SUV into the restaurant’s bakery Friday night. No one was injured.
“I’m just thankful there was no loss of life,” said owner Sherry Cartrette. “My mom, dad, and sister had all walked out that door within 10 minutes of it happening. Fortunately, nobody was sitting at the counter and none of our employees were in the bakery.”
The accident occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m.
According to police, Mason told authorities that a toddler in the vehicle had gotten out of a car seat while she was driving down Atkinson Street. As she attempted to put him back into the seat, the vehicle struck the restaurant, police said.
A waitress named Kim said she was in the dining room when she heard what she thought was an explosion.
“The SUV looked like it was one of the teens who work here, so I ran outside,” Kim said. “The lady looked like she wasn’t in this world. She just kept trying to go forward then backward, but … there was no way she was going anywhere.”
Lakeisha Mason was charged with operating a vehicle without a license, a child restraint violation and misdemeanor child abuse and received a $500 unsecured bond, according to police.
The Main Table reopened on Tuesday, but the bakery will remain closed for now.
“We missed out on one of our busiest days Saturday, but the contractor got [the building] stable enough for us to reopen safely,” Cartrette said. “But we had a lot of people come by and show us they support us.”
Cartrette is unsure when bakery will reopen or how much it will cost to repair the damage because the holiday weekend slowed down getting a contractor’s estimate and starting insurance claims.
She said everything in the bakery was lost, including an ice cream freezer and eight tubs of ice cream. The crash also damaged a restroom.
“We will try to make up for it with the restaurant,” Cartrette said. “We were trying to expand the bakery and offer more choices with our ice cream selection, but we’ll have to put that on hold.”
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