Surveillance cameras captured the moment when a car plowed through the front doors and into Sniffers Doggie Retreat and Training Center in Rockville on the evening of May 11. According to Sniffers Doggie Retreat, the incident was an accident.
The video begins with a woman walking up to the front desk and speaking with two employees. In the background a silver car appears and stops short, close to the front entrance. Seconds later, the car is hurtling through the front doors, turning the glass entrance into shards.
The driver didn’t stop there. They accelerated into the lobby, smashing into the front desk and breaking through to the next room. A camera in that room caught the car crashing through cages before coming to a final stop. The car crashed about 30-feet into the building.
The car and its path of destruction narrowly missed the woman, two employees in the lobby and one employee in back room. No dogs were harmed, but two spooked dogs did escape from the facility.
One dog was reunited with its owner shortly after the crash. But the second dog, Macita, went missing for more than a day. She returned to the kennel on her own the morning of May 13.
Sniffers Doggie Retreat posted the video onto their Facebook and Instagram pages, thanking the community for their support since the crash. “Thank you to everyone for your support over the past few days,” they wrote. “We’ve been asked many times what exactly happened. We don’t have specifics, but we do know this was an accident.”
The Montgomery County Police Department and the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the cause of the incident.
Since the crash, Sniffers has received an outpouring of support from the community. On their Facebook page they said that they won’t be starting a GoFundMe account. But they are very appreciative of community members sending lunch for the employees and welcomed gifting of Doordash gift cards instead.
They have also suggested to send donations to the rescue groups and non-profits that volunteered their time and resources to help Sniffers, such as Tailed Treasures of Maryland and Partnership for Animal Welfare.
For now, Sniffers operates out of its training lobby until everything has been repaired. The team is focused on getting the facility back to normal and ready for summer.