(Editor’s note: The following story has been edited to include the correct spelling of Herfert Fobb Jr.’s name)

LAPLACE — Herfert Fobb Jr. got a call Thursday at approximately 8 p.m. that he wasn’t expecting.

The call Fobb received was authorities telling him a car crashed into his shoe repair business at 242 Cardinal Street in LaPlace.

“The shop was temporarily closed,” Fobb said. “According to what the police said, the guy was on drugs, Mojo. He ran into the building, and when he ran into it, he just kept going. We had a bunch of machinery that was in there that was misplaced. Everything is all knocked out of whack.”

Fobb said he heard the car caught fire, adding there was evidence to confirm that. There was charring to some of the wood where the car entered the wall and pieces of installation laying outside that was black. Fobb said he didn’t know the guy who ran into his building.

Walls and doors destroyed, machinery moved from one end of the store to the other and a tear in the ceiling is just some of the damage Fobb and Sons Shoe Repair suffered.

The driver was taken to the hospital, Fobb said, adding he saw him being taken away on a gurney. Police and emergency vehicles were gone by 10 p.m. Thursday, Fobb said.

“I didn’t feel good when I got the call. My daddy doesn’t even know about it yet,” Fobb said Friday morning. “The shop has been here since 1949 and nothing like this has happened that I know of.”

The shop has been closed since 2012, but Fobb said the store was going to reopen within the next few months. With all of the repairs that need to be done now, he isn’t sure when the store will reopen.

“I just had the building repainted,” he said. “Now there is a lot more work to be done.”

Even though the stranger ran into his building, Fobb said he hopes the man makes a fast recovery.