Moments before the sun rose over a cloudy horizon in Virginia Beach Saturday morning, a car broke through multiple gates and drove onto the Fishing Pier before plunging off the end into the ocean.
Video shared with News 3 shows the car drive toward the end of the pier, which sits between 14th and 15th streets, briefly pause, and then go off the end. A flock of birds can be seen fluttering away moments before.
Raw video shows car driving off VB fishing pier
“My first reaction was I was feeling very surprised and then very sad,” said Manon Scholl.
Scholl works at Ocean Eddie’s on the pier.
She said she was woken up Saturday morning by a phone call from a friend telling her what happened.
“I was really confused. I was, like, what do you mean somebody drove off the pier? That’s obviously very hard,” said Scholl.
WTKR It is difficult to see how this could have been an accident because the driver had to break through not one but two barriers to get onto the pier. The cellphone video shows the driver braking several times while on the pier before driving off and into the water.