Temple business looking for person responsible for crashing into its building before driving off

TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX) - A Temple-based auto and detail shop is back to business as usual after a car crashed into part of its building Monday morning.

Just after midnight, a car veered off West Adams Avenue and into the Bulldog Auto Detailing business that sits on North 43rd Street.

After crashing into the business, the driver took off.

Gram Short, the owner of the detailing shop, is questioning how it could even happen, considering the set-up of the road and his business.

“My first thought when I saw it was, ‘how did they do that?’,” the Bulldog Auto Detailing owner said.

Looking at the video, you see the car veer off the road, some debris fly around and the car reverse.

The person then gets out of the car and inspects the damages for about 30 seconds before driving off.

“I was kind of perplexed by ‘how did they actually do this?’” Short asked.

The car hit the business’ wash-bay and collapsed the roof before driving away.

“It definitely put a wrench in the operations, but with some quick thinking, and some kind of ingenuity, we were able to make a makeshift wash-bay without affecting operations too much,” said Short.

Short wants to thank his landlord for their quick acting in getting an integral part of their business fixed so fast.

Within a day the wash-bay was back on its feet.

The only thing Short wonders is, why drive off after damaging a small business?

“The biggest thing we want people to know is there’s a lot of small businesses out here that are working hard day to day. I mean it’s tough times for a lot of people right now, so when people do these things to small businesses, it affects us,” Short said.

Temple police are investigating the incident but Short is offering his own reward for any information.

“We’d probably throw in like a free detail or something if somebody could give us some information to help us find who did this,” Short said.

Anyone with information is to contact TPD at 254-298-5500 or the Bell County Crime Stoppers at 254-526-8477 or bellcountycrimestoppers.com, where you can report anonymously.

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