Last Updated on November 3, 2023, 5:21 PM | Published: November 3, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — The staff members of Freeman’s Liquor Mart are shaken – but not stirred – after a car crash left a hole in the building early Friday afternoon.
One of the state’s oldest liquor stores, Freeman’s has occupied the same location at 4401 N. Western since 1959, but a little less of the longstanding building is still standing after a driver crashed into the store’s southeast corner, taking out a large window and some of the stonework.
“I was just standing here and I felt the shelves come down on me,” said Freeman’s employee Dillion Parker. “I thought that the shelves had just shifted or collapsed. And then all of a sudden, I was pinned with my knee up between the shelves and the register. They had to push the shelves back so I could get out.”
Parker escaped with no noticeable injuries.
Less lucky, however, was the store’s behind-the-counter selection of pints and small bottles. The wall normally holds hundreds of small bottles, many of which are among the store’s best-selling items, all of which crashed to the floor.
No other employees were in the vicinity of the crash at the time, though the entire staff did immediately rush to begin cleaning the mess and setting up a kind of retail triage center with a single working register and all salvageable items cleaned and made ready for sale.
Workers employed snow shovels to lift the piles of broken glass and sort the unbroken items into shopping carts and boxes.
With building damage combined with the number of bottles lost – potentially including some rare or specialty items that were on display behind the counter – the total cost of the damages will be difficult to finalize, but is estimated to be in the tens of thousands.
But that’s not going to stop them from doing business on the busiest day of the week.
“They’re going to board it all up and secure it for tonight,” said Freeman’s owner, Chris Hancock. “We’re not going to close or anything.”
The car’s driver was reportedly an elderly woman known to store staff as a regular customer. Her name was not revealed.
“She couldn’t get out, so she just sat there in the car,” said employee Robert Turrentine. “The whole car was wedged in and her door was stuck, so she couldn’t go anywhere.”
“We’ve had it happen before,” said Hancock. “A number of years back, somebody in an older car moving real slow hit the building and busted out the glass and knocked out a couple of cinder blocks.”
Hancock remembers that situation being a pain, but says that time is already much worse.
“It was nothing like this,” he said, assessing today’s damage. “This is a way bigger hole.”
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
