Vehicle smashes Village Hardware merchandise in hit-and-run

November 4, 2011

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villagehardware1 — Village Hardware owner Larry Donahoo points to a damaged metal cabinet, done by a hit-and-run vehicle mid-day Friday. Photo by Halie Johnson

Sometime between 11:45 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. today, a vehicle smashed into the side of Village Hardware, where merchandise is displayed in a covered area.

Village Hardware owner Larry Donahoo said the hit-and-run was discovered just after noon when an employee went out the side of the building. No one inside heard the crash, as rain poured down heavily outside.

villagehardware2 — A toilet was dragged by the vehicle and left shattered in the parking lot adjacent to the hardware store. Photo by Halie Johnson

A vehicle appears to have plowed past a parking space into the display area, smashing metal and plastic trash cans and dragging a porcelain toilet for sale out of the area and into the parking space, where it was left shattered.

Donahoo hopes that footage from one of the two security cameras on the neighboring Village Market building will reveal exactly how this happened and who is to blame.

"I'd like to think that somebody did this on accident," he said.

He has a call in to the California Highway Patrol, busy today with the wet road conditions. Anyone with information about the hit-and-run is asked to contact Village Hardware at 659-4457 or the CHP at (951) 769-2000.