Unwelcome intruder at video store

Stagecoach staff examine the damage. Picture / Martin Sykes

A runaway bus ploughed into a video store in Te Atatu this morning, leaving the back of the bus lodged in the shop but fortunately injuring no one.

The Stagecoach bus had been parked across the street from the Robertson Video Centre on Edmonton Rd before it rolled backwards through the store front at 8.15am.

The driver had gone into a lunchbar to get something to eat.

No one was on the bus or in the video store when the accident happened.

Store owner Keith Robertson was about to get in the shower when he got a call to say the alarm in the children's and drama section had gone off.

"I thought, 'That's very strange'," he said.

He arrived at the shop to find the front of the bus protuding from a gaping hole where there used to be windows.

He said shelves inside were destroyed but damage to stock was minor because only video covers were displayed.

An investigation was underway to see whether the accident was the result of human error or a failed handbrake.

The bus was driven out of the shop about two hours after the crash.

The video shop was open for business.