Wendy's New Drive Thru

So, here it is, Valentines Day 2009. Due to one crazy event in our lifetime, this day will be more than just giving my money to Hallmark. It’s a day that I get to reflect on an event where my wife and I were almost killed. [insert dramatic "dum dum duhhhhh"]

It was Friday, February 14th, 2003. My wife had to work late that day, so we were going to do a nice Valentines Day thing over the weekend. She was going to just pickup some Wendy’s via drive thru and bring it home. Well, half way to work her car breaks down. I had to pick her up where she was at, then take her to work. This meant I had to then pick her up and the end of her shift. So, I pick her up and head to Wendy’s as originally planned. However, we decide not to go through the drive-thru as we notice my brother was working that night. We, instead, go inside and order our meals. I ask my wife to pick a place to sit – any other day we would have sat right up against the window facing Hwy 98. This day, she said “right here is fine” – about 3 rows back from the window.

It was about 5-10 minutes into our meals when we heard a vehicle outside screeching very loudly. The next thing I know, this SUV comes crashing through the front of Wendy’s. We get up and run towards the front of the restaurant, jumping over chairs and trash cans – an employee was doing trash duty, and the cans ended up on their sides when they ran. I can literally feel the brick and glass hitting us as we make our way up to the front. Once we get up there, I realize that I never let go of my hamburger. I tell my wife to hold my burger while I go out to the car and grab my new digital camera. She says “No! I’m not holding your burger!” – obviously very distraught over what just happened. So, I walked it back over to our table quickly, and put it back on the tray – don’t ask me why

To summarize this up, the driver was driving his daddy’s new Toyota Landcruiser, drunk, and with a loaded rifle in the back. We never went to court, but we ended up with over a month of free food from Wendy’s. My wife also was pulling pieces of glass out of her purse for several months after that. To this day, she absolutely avoids sitting anywhere near a window that’s up against a road.

Check out the pictures!

Oh, and as a little bonus, here’s an article from a couple days ago on MSNBC that my wife stumbled across.