Local

Car crashes through wall of Sanford grocery store

SANFORD, Fla. — A Sanford supermarket manager narrowly missed serious injury when a car came crashing through the wall of his business Monday night.

"It could have been worse, you're right about that," said William Peralta, talking about the accident.

Peralta was a split second away from being seriously injured when the car came through the front wall of the store while customers shopped inside.

Peralta showed the surveillance video from inside the store to WFTV reporter Renee Stoll.

"I was walking out and then the car hit in and batted me over that way," said Peralta, describing the video captured on an in-store camera.

Peralta was hit by a gumball machine and moved his head in time to avoid being hit by one of the sharp pieces of wood that came flying his way.

"At first I thought it was some shotgun fire out here, but as soon as it hit me I was like, 'Whoa,' said Peralta.

In the video Peralta is seen rushing outside to make sure the person in the Nissan was OK.

Police say Peralta allowed the man driving the car to leave the scene before police arrived, because he was a regular customer.

Fortunately no customers were in harm's way when the incident happened.

Peralta said he is just thankful it wasn't worse.   

"Such is life, you know. One minute you're here, one minute you're gone. This time I was lucky and I'm still here," said Peralta.

Because Peralta let the driver go, Sanford police said he will not be charged with leaving the scene.

Police have not released the identity of the driver, nor have they said if he was injured in the crash.