3 injured when carjacked vehicle slams into Newark bar
NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) -- The crushed corner of a New Jersey bar is being held up with jack posts - the local watering hole and apartments above it are off-limits for now.
It was not the first time a speeding car had smacked into the Cozy Corner Bar in Newark, but owner Paul Dietrich says in nearly 20 years, this was the worst.
The impact left three women hurt.
"It knocked my barmaid into the through the wall, literally. And then I guess when all the debris and everything came with her, that's what hurt my customer that was sitting at the bar," he said.
The Toyota Scion, carjacked only two blocks away, caught fire - which Dietrich and another worker put out with fire extinguishers as the driver took off, running in the chaos.
"The car caught on fire on the sidewalk. The car came down here, hit the bar, swung around to the left, smacked the wall, the girl standing outside smoking, it knocked her through the wall," Dietrich said.
It all happened around midnight on Saturday. The owner tells Eyewitness News that he is grateful no one was killed. The injured are recovering and the building is fixable. Once power is back on in the building, police can go through surveillance video as their search continues for the driver.
"It seems like almost every accident that's occurred out here is always either by a stolen car or the accident was caused by a stolen car. So, the insurance companies don't want to pay up and I'm going to have to go through my homeowner's insurance," Dietrich adds.
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