NORFOLK, Va. — A driver crashed an SUV into Head Turnerz Salon on Azalea Garden Road in Norfolk, leaving the owner, who has been battling breast cancer, facing a new setback just as she was preparing to return to work.
Norfolk Police say the driver told officers they accidentally accelerated while trying to park. Surveillance video from a nearby business captured the crash, which happened Sunday, Sept. 6.
Nicole King, the owner of Head Turnerz Salon, said the damage was extensive.
"When I got to the scene it looked like a garage, the car was literally parked right in front of my station so it knocked my chair into my station," King said.
King said she learned about the crash through a phone call and alarm notifications on her phone.
"She was like you just need to get here someone ran through your shop and I'm like 'through the shop?' so then I'm looking and I see the notifications from the alarm and I'm like oh my gosh I don't know what in the world is going on," King said.
King opened the salon in 2013. For the past seven weeks, she has been away from work while battling breast cancer and recovering from multiple surgeries. She said she was finally preparing to return to work this week when the crash happened.
"It's been a rough year for me in and out of work, I have undergone this is my 3rd surgery, I had a double mastectomy done and I still have one more surgery to go so I'm going to be out of work again," King said.
Now, instead of returning to work, King is focused on figuring out how to rebuild the business she has spent more than a decade building.
"When I say it's like okay we gone punch you from the right, punch you from the left but I've been smiling I've been grateful through it all, I can't cry I don't let things get me down, life is life and it's gone happen," King said.
King said she is thankful the crash happened when no one was inside the salon. She is still weighing her options, including repairing the current space or finding a new location.
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