Car crashes into Milwaukee bar, owners hope to rebuild dream

MILWAUKEE - A car crashed into and then landed inside a Milwaukee wine bar early Saturday morning, Oct. 21. Surveillance video shows two people walked away and left the car behind.

It shattered bottles of wine – and put a lifelong dream on hold – at Thelma Carol Wine Merchants near 6th and Virginia in Walker's Point. 

"When we opened last year, it was basically kind of a lifetime dream come true," said Jerel Hall, who owns the bar with his wife, Rebecca. "Of course, now we need to put everything on pause, which is pretty heartbreaking and devastating."

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For now, a cork is temporarily put into the couple's dream as they clean up the mess with help from family, friends and the property owner.

"It was a small army of people that showed up, and hundreds more on social media and emails lending support," Jerel said.

Crash into building near 6th and Virginia (Courtesy: Thelma Carol Wine Merchants)

The car crashed right into their favorite section—Italian wines, including collectible bottles, some of which survived the impact.

"I had about 20 different bottles of collectible Barolo down there and only a handful made it through. Which is amazing that we're picking out full bottles in what was essentially a graveyard of broken bottles. And were like, ‘Oh, how did this survive?’" asked Jerel.

One of those bottles that survived the destruction included a 2015 Barolo. "Of all of what I consider to be tiny, little glass children that I'm fostering for the time being, to find this little guy was pretty special."

The surveillance video shows a man and woman get out of the car and out of the store, with the help of two others who are seen entering the store.

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"Seeing something in an action movie is one thing, but seeing it happen to a place where you spend a good amount of time in is completely different," said Jerel.

At the time of the crash, Brendan Cleary was in the basement across the street, which is his workplace, Great Lakes Distillery. He said he heard a loud noise.

"You’ve got to put your eyes in and go, ‘Wow, that’s a car in a building,’" Cleary said. "OK, that’s a thing."

Evidence of a wild ride remained outside a day after. Just after the Sixth Street South Bridge, FOX6 spotted deep tire marks in the grass and dozens of pieces of a car strewn on the ground. Several of the pieces were marked with the Volkswagen logo or VW identifying information, the same make of car that crashed into the wine store. The tire marks continued down the block, leading right to the curb in front of the wine store, where a bike rack was toppled, and the large window was destroyed.

The owners said the hit-and-run won’t shatter their dream. The business is insured, and they are doing inventory to figure out how much wine was destroyed. They say they want to reopen as soon as possible, but don't have a timeline yet.

The Milwaukee Department of Public Works boarded up their shattered window, the wine bar owners said.

The Milwaukee Police Department did not respond to FOX6 News' question on whether an arrest was made and whether the driver was suspected to be the owner of the vehicle. A credit car was found on the scene, along with keys.

Hall said he'd like to see the city make the roundabout close to his store safer.

"I would prefer to address the city of Milwaukee in terms of trying to get that roundabout in some way, secure. This is a very regular occurrence. Cars in buildings is not so regular, but in the year we’ve been here, I’ve seen a major accident on that roundabout pretty much every week."