The driver of a Crown Victoria used the front of the Dollar Tree Tuesday afternoon to prove that “drive thru” is a noun and a phrasal verb.

A man was pulling into the handicapped parking space in front of the store at approximately 3:30 p.m. when his foot slipped off the brake and depressed the accelerator, according to Oak Harbor Police Sgt. Larry Ferguson

The formidable 1997 Ford, the model favored by some law enforcement agencies, crashed through the glass doors and stopped a few feet inside the store.

Neither the driver or the passenger, his wife, were injured in the incident and the Dollar Tree employees and customers somehow all emerged unscathed.

“The biggest thing is that nobody was hurt,” Ferguson said. “It’s truly amazing. People are coming and going from there all the time.”

The Oak Harbor Fire Department arrived and was immediately put to work, first removing the bent metal door frames and then filling shopping carts with destroyed items. At least the damage can be quantified in singles.

A woman who identified herself only as Marcy was leafing through school books with her five-year-old son when the car hit.

“Crash!” she said. “There was a car coming right in the building.”

She estimated it was only two-feet away from where they were standing.

“I was scared. My son’s still trying to regroup,” she said shortly after the accident.

Ironically, the one parking spot in front of the store without a concrete parking curb was the handicapped space. The vehicle went through the store like a knife through warm butter, albeit warm butter covered in glass.

“They didn’t hit anything and just kind of hung on for the ride,” Ferguson said. “This happens so fast and it was such a short distance from the parking space to the store.”

Oak Harbor city employees placed a dumpster outside the newly-ventilated store to accommodate the considerable wreckage.

“It will be boarded up for security,” the police sergeant said, adding that getting the store reopened for business is top priority.