‘I’m glad everybody is alive’: Business owner reacts after car crashes into his shop

By Angela Rozier

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    FORT PIERCE, Florida (WPBF) — One day after a car crashed into a Fort Pierce aquarium business, the owner is open and back in business.

The owner of TC Aquariums, Jeff Felten, is thankful that neither he nor his manager was inside the store when an SUV crashed into the concrete building.

“We would have been right there,” Felten said. “They would have shoved us 20 feet and probably killed us with glass. It was horrible.”

The incident took place just after 10 a.m. on Monday.

Felten watched the incident unfold on surveillance video at his store, which is located in the 3500 block of S. U.S. 1 Highway.

“An SUV, some type, came flying down the street,” Felten said. “It flew right into the front of my concrete block building, pushing all my corals 20 feet, which was 4,500 pounds worth of corals and water.”

The owner rushed to the scene after hearing what had happened.

“Oh my God, I was devastated!” Felten said.

He explained that they moved into this location about two years ago and were just getting settled.

They are still working on cleaning up and assessing the damage.

“All the corals are dead. We couldn’t even find half of them—they probably ended up in the rubble,” Felten said. “Fortunately, neither of us was here. Scheduling didn’t work out for my manager, and I was at a doctor’s office when it happened.”

There is no word yet on the condition of the driver.

“But this is replaceable,” Felten said. “Am I upset? Yes, but I’m glad everybody is alive.”

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