SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The front of the longtime guitar store 'Mark's Guitar Exchange' is now boarded up, and if staff or customers want to go inside, they have to head to the back. Surveillance footage shared with ABC 10News shows the moment a car rammed through the front early Tuesday morning.
"Somebody called it in from across the street and said it sounded like a bomb went off," the owner, Josh Augustin, explains.
He was called in after midnight when it happened. Police say the driver fell asleep at the wheel, and they don't expect drugs or alcohol to be involved. Wednesday, the majority of the storefront is now boarded up from top to bottom.
Augustin walked us through the damage left behind.
"The person just had an episode where they went to sleep and went right through like a rocket.”
This longtime guitar store, once filled with only guitars, amps, and nearly anything you needed as a musician, turned into a clean-up site with brooms and vacuums. But there’s been an outpour of support from local vendors and the community to help.
"There's been so many people that have stopped by, we've had the back door open where everybody's like, 'how can I help.' Our vendor community has been awesome. They've all have reached out like how can we get you guys back going, so there's been a lot of help as far as that."
For more than 20 years, the store and its employees have doled out guitar lessons to people of all ages. And many of them came back to help.
"You really realize what good employees and teachers and students that you have when they just wanna come in and help the place that they've been a part of."
And while he admits it’s unfortunate, and it’ll take some time to fully get back to normal, Augustin says he’s grateful because it could’ve been worse.
"I'm just happy that it happened at the time that it did that then that nobody got hurt. I mean, you can replace guitars, but I can't replace people."
