PRICE CHECK: Bullet on aisle 2
Published 12:10 am Wednesday, January 4, 2017
- Staff members at Gregg’s Neighborhood Market in Reserve found this bullet on the floor Monday morning. (Photo submitted)
RESERVE — The staff at Gregg’s Neighborhood Market in Reserve made an unusual discovery Monday morning when cleaning up water damage in the soft drink aisle — it was a bullet.
Owner Gregg Simon said he noticed water pooled on the floor at approximately 6:45 a.m. Monday.
“The ceiling tile and all fell, because the tile got so wet,” Simon said. “We found the bullet when we were mopping up. I looked up and saw the hole in the roof. You can see the daylight through it.”
The view looking up from the Gregg’s Neighborhood Market floor in Reserve shows the sky through a bullet hole.
Simon figures, with his store closed Sunday for New Year’s Day, the bullet came through sometime after midnight on New Year’s Eve following a careless reveler celebrating the beginning of 2017 with gunfire.
“I come in here (Monday) morning, got water all over the floor, find a bullet and a hole in my roof,” Simon said. “Some people don’t realize that you can’t shoot a gun in the air and not have it come down.”
With more than a dozen years in business, Simon said, thankfully, this is his first bullet hole.
The gunfire damage in Reserve marked what local authorities said was a relatively calm holiday for St. John the Baptist Parish; although, the Sheriff’s Office did report eight D.W.I. arrests in the four-day holiday weekend between Friday and Monday.
Sheriff Mike Tregre said New Year revelry typically stays calm in St. John.
“This was probably the quietest holiday season we have had since I have been sheriff,” he said.
According to Tregre, he is more concerned with recent St. John traffic crashes that resulted in four fatalities over 14 days in December. The fatal consequences led to a meeting with Louisiana State Police, and Tregre said investigative findings have been turned over to the District Attorney’s office.
“At the end of the year, it just seems we have all these crashes,” he said. “There are more people distracted driving and more people on the road. You have less of a window to take your eyes off the road. If you turn your head and look away from the road when there is that much volume, you don’t have that much time to react. It’s real sad to lose four people in two weeks.”
