Car Smashes Into Maryland Dog Daycare Center in Shocking Clip

🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.

A shocking video captured the moment a car crashed through the front door of a Maryland dog daycare center.

Emergency services in Rockville, just north of Washington, D.C., were called out after reports of a car smashing into Sniffers Doggie Retreat (SDR) on Westmore Road at about 4:30 p.m. on May 11.

A video shared on the company's Instagram page showed the car smashed into the front of the business before it continued further inside.

People near the front desk appeared shocked as the vehicle crashed into the building and quickly moved away as the car moved deeper into the store.

A stock image of a smashed-up car
A file photo of a smashed-up car. The car smashed into the building on May 11, and fortunately nobody was injured. Getty

Webcam footage taken from inside SDR showed the car smashed into an office section of the business, where two employees managed to avoid being hit.

The car then left a trail of devastation and debris behind and came to a stop when it struck several cages in a space behind the office.

An SDR spokesperson said in a May 15 Instagram post: "No human or dogs were injured and everyone is now safe. We will be working hard to get our facility back to normal and can't wait to see your dogs this summer."

The spokesperson added: "We've been asked many times what exactly happened. We don't have specifics but we do know this was an accident."

Hillary Stains, the co-owner of SDR, told CBS affiliate WUSA9: "It's really incredible. We can rebuild the building at any time but we can never replace a dog."

She explained the two employees behind the desk in the lobby area were with a client who was waiting to pick up their dog and that a third employee didn't even see the car until it crashed through the wall into the kennel area.

Stains told the outlet the driver was someone who wanted to pick up their dog, but that she was unsure about how the incident happened.

The co-owner told the network that two dogs escaped following the crash, but that they found the first one on the same day and that the second returned on its own several days later.

According to the road safety website Zero Deaths Maryland, there were 80,048 property damage crashes in the state in 2021.

It represented an increase on the 69,698 property damage crashes recorded in 2020, a year defined by the COVID pandemic.

The 2021 figure was still lower than both 2019 and 2018, when 82,561 and 83,626 such incidents were recorded, respectively.

Newsweek has contacted SDR and the Rockville City Police Department for comment via email.

About the writer

Anders Anglesey is a U.S. News Reporter based in London, U.K., covering crime, politics, online extremism and trending stories. Anders has covered QAnon conspiracy theorists and their links to U.S. politicians ahead of the 2022 midterm election. Anders joined Newsweek in 2021. Languages: English, Swedish. You can contact Anders via email at a.anglesey@newsweek.com.

You can get in touch with Anders by emailing a.anglesey@newsweek.com


Anders Anglesey is a U.S. News Reporter based in London, U.K., covering crime, politics, online extremism and trending stories. Anders ... Read more