An 84-year-old woman trying to park her car outside the Kurow Four Square yesterday morning instead crashed through the store window.
The Hakataramea woman was parking her Toyota Corona outside the supermarket in Bledisloe St at 11.44am when she hit the accelerator instead of the brake, mounted the kerb and crashed through the front of the building.
''She's pulled in slowly to stop and then hit [the accelerator] at low speed, but enough to put the whole front end [of the vehicle] up to the driver's door inside the shop,'' Constable Craig Bennett, of Kurow, said.
The woman was not injured in the crash and ''luckily'' no one was in that area of the shop at the time.
''She was a little bit shaken and very upset, obviously, by the crash occurring,'' Const Bennett said.
When the car was winched out, the woman was checked by medical staff and taken home to be looked after by her family.
''We had two off duty ambulance members and a prime nurse and the local medical centre nurse all passing the area at the time,'' Const Bennett said.
The Kurow Volunteer Fire Service was also called to the scene as a precaution.
A Kurow Four Square employee and a customer watched the scene unfold, just metres away, and shop owners Mike and Diana de Jong were close by.
''I didn't see it. I was unloading a truck along the side [of the building],'' Mr de Jong said.
''All I heard was a bang ... so I poked my head around the corner to have a look.''
A magazine shelf was knocked over and items were thrown off other rows of shelving, but the main damage was to the front wall of the building which was boarded up as a temporary measure yesterday.
''It could've been a lot worse'', Mr de Jong said.
''It's just annoying ... [but] these things happen.''
Const Bennett said the driver would be referred to the Waitaki Staying Safe Older Driver Programme.
