Disclaimer: All persons are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — For the first time in eight years, Heard Dat Kitchen in Central City had to temporarily shut down after a car crashed into the building. Days later, owner Jeffery Heard is opening his doors back up.
“Excited to get back open where we won’t disappoint our guests. That’s our number one priority,” says Heard.
The side where the crash happened has been repaired. However, Heard says it doesn’t make up for the business they lost.
“Tourists hear about us all weekend long. So, early Monday morning, they come looking. When a guest pulls up, jumps out of an Uber and we have to tell them that we are closed, that’s disappointing to me,” says Heard.
Surveillance video shows the car hitting the restaurant, going right through the wall and into the area where the Heard’s daughter usually stands. He says people speed down the street daily, but he never imagined his restaurant would be hit.
“It would have been my daughter there you know, and she would have probably been hurt. It doesn’t just happen at night, it happens during the daytime as well. Gentlemen swerved here and hit that pole trying to do burnouts,” says Heard.
The driver ran off, and the white sports car remained parked just around the corner from the restaurant.
Now that doors are back open, Heard wishes the suspect had the courtesy to at least apologize.
“Say, ‘Well this happened. It was an accident.’ I’m not going to say they know, but they know we have this business, and we are a family trying to make a living. So, for him to do that and not say anything is crazy because these days cameras are everywhere,” says Heard.
Anyone with information about the crash can call Crimestoppers of greater New Orleans at (504)-822-1111.
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