BMW Barrels Into Carpet Store, Narrowly Misses Worker

A BMW barreled into a carpet store in Landover Thursday night, narrowly missing a worker who had just gotten up from his desk.

"All of a sudden, I hear a big boom -- sounded like a bomb. I honestly thought it was a bomb," said Sam Mack, the sales manager at Carpet Shop at Home on Central Avenue in Landover.

Mack had been sitting at his desk, right next to the window, just minutes before the crash. He had just gotten up to use his boss' computer.

"I'm lucky to be alive," Mack said. "I had just left the desk."

The driver of the BMW was lucky too; he was not hurt in the crash. Witnesses said he was having a medical emergency when he came across the intersection, through the parking lot and into the carpet store.

Workers said it would have been a different story if the car had struck steel containers that were near where he hit.

"Had he hit one of the containers, he wouldn't be alive right now. The car probably would have exploded," Mack said.

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Mack says he and a bystander carried the driver into the office and waited with him until paramedics arrived. Before the driver left, he shook hands with the store's owner and employees and apologized to them for what happened.

"It was an accident ... he did apologize," Mack said. "He's thankful for his life."

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