Stolen car slams into Chicago daycare
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A stolen car slammed through a Calumet Heights day car Saturday night, and the driver ran off before police arrived.
Cleanup is underway at Premier Child Care at 88th and Stony Island Avenue.
"It looked like a disaster," said Tamera Fair. "It looked like a war zone. It looked like a bomb had gone off. It did not look like a car had knocked the bricks out.
Fair wasted no time getting Premier Daycare back up and running for her 65 students for Monday morning. The stolen car slammed into the daycare around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, knocking out bricks and leaving a gaping hole.
When Fair got the call, all she could do was be grateful.
"Prayer. I pray that whoever crashed into the building was OK and that anybody that was walking along the building was OK. And I prayed and in thanks that we were not here. That was my initial reaction," she said.
Her next reaction was to get a plan in place so the doors could open again.
"We had our own structural engineer come out," she said. "The city structural engineer came out. They deemed it safe. They told our workers exactly what to do."
Repair crews arrived 12 hours after the crash to clean up the damage.
The owner said the damage won't keep them from opening for the dozens of families that rely on them.
"This is where they learn about Black history 365 days of the year," Fair said. "This is where they learn about fairytales, which typically have been taken out of schools."
The library took all the damage, but not enough to keep the students from learning another day.
"This is where you can see all of their creativity just shine," Fair said.
Fair is also looking at what else can be done to make streets safer near our most vulnerable.
"I definitely want to drive home the aspect of putting guard rails in front of our most vulnerable where we can protect and overprotect them," she said. "Because crime is what it is, but prevention is what it has to be."
No one is in custody, and police say there is no word on any suspects.
