(WSVN) - The woman who drove onto the second floor of a shopping plaza in Boston last week explained what led up to the incident.
Susan Gauthier said she was behind the wheel of the Lincoln MKX that drove through the South Shore Plaza in Braintree last Thursday.
Gauthier managed to make it several hundred feet into the mall before coming to a stop as security guards motioned for her to halt.
“I was trying to go to the Apple store and I went the wrong way, which is easy to do down there, but it was a stupid mistake,” Gauthier said. “I went all the way up, I just never stopped and it was really stupid – it was my own fault, I admit it.”
Security footage captured the moment the SUV went onto the second floor of the mall through the parking garage. She made it about 60 yards down the pedestrian walkway before coming to a complete stop.
Gauthier said she visited the shopping plaza before but she confessed she lost her way.
“When you go up the hill, there’s parking spaces and I said ‘geez, I want the Apple store,’” Gauthier said.
Gauthier’s vehicle, now outside of her house, had some minor scratches. The woman herself was OK after the incident but she was held at the hospital for about 6 hours before she said they found nothing wrong with her.
In the aftermath of the mall drive-through, police deemed Gauthier an immediate threat and had her license suspended.
She wished she had thought her actions through.
“If I had just stopped and [thought], you know when I went up to the parking lot, if I just said ‘where’s the Apple store’ to somebody, they would have told me, I’m sure,” Gauthier said. “People are pretty nice over there.”
Gauthier ultimately did get to the Apple store on Tuesday with the help of her family to get what she needed. She said she might even try to get her license back.
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