The owner of a Kingston, Ont., comic book store has had another stroke of bad luck this week.
“So far it’s been probably the worst year imaginable for a small business owner, between the three shut-downs, the break-in, and now the truck. It’s been tiring,” said Mark Fardella, owner of SBT Comics.
On June 30th a truck drove right into the store, nearly running over Fardella, and a FedEx delivery driver.
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“I came in to make a simple FedEx delivery to Mark and he’s such a nice guy, I took a couple of minutes to talk to him. That couple of minutes probably saved our lives,” explained Pat Arenburg, the FedEx delivery driver.
“My thoughts initially were ‘that is some guy flying around the parking lot.’ We heard squealing tires, so I was just irritated initially, and I don’t even know how…,” added Fardella.
The men say they dove out of the way just in time. Fardella came out without a scratch and Arenburg, who is taking a leave of absence from work, sustained minor injuries.
According to Kingston police, the driver of the truck, a man in his 60s, lost control of the vehicle. There are no charges pending at this time.
“Just… happy to be alive,” said Arenburg.
Fardella says that while the clean-up has been tricky, community support has been plentiful. “Every time there’s a shut-down, you know the break-in, the truck accident, the community pulls together and supports us incredibly well and it just means the world to us,” he said.
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“We wouldn’t have survived any of those things had people not decided they want us to survive them,” he added.
While there isn’t a GoFundMe page up and Fardella isn’t asking for donations, Arenburg says that there is one thing that people can do to continue to support STB Comics.
“Come out and support Mark, he needs it. He’s been through some pretty rough times,” said Arenburg.
STB Comics is located at 749 Bayridge Dr. Since the break-in on New Year’s, the entrance is around the back of the store.