Pickup truck crashes through Ollie's Bargain Outlet in Selden
Ollie's, at 323 Middle Country Road in Selden, was temporarily closed after a driver apparently struck the front of the store. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin
Ollie's Bargain Outlet in Selden was closed the past two days after police said a pickup truck crashed through a wall and into the business late Saturday.
Suffolk County police said the 2025 Chevrolet pickup crashed through the front wall of the store, at the shopping plaza at 323 Middle Country Rd., just before midnight Saturday. Police said the male driver and a female passenger in the pickup were transported to Stony Brook University Hospital for treatment of minor injuries. No one was charged in the incident.
On Monday the store manager, Jim McDonald, told Newsday that the store was closed and unoccupied at the time of the crash.
"I got the phone call from the alarm company saying there was motion in the building and I asked them, 'Did the perimeter alarm go off?' because sometimes maybe a box falls or something and it goes off. But they said, 'No, the perimeter didn't go off' — so I told them don't call police, because they've got better things to do."
Two minutes later, the alarm company called to say there was motion in the store, so McDonald told them to call the precinct, he said, adding, "I get down there 10 minutes later to find like five fire engines and a couple of cop cars in the parking lot — and this large pickup truck inside the store."
McDonald continued: "It was a very large pickup truck — and it went right through the wall and ended up inside."
The store was closed Sunday and again Monday as a result of the crash and workers have framed out repairs to the damaged wall, McDonald said. He was waiting for the Town of Brookhaven building inspector to sign off on the work so the store can reopen.
An online search showed there have been several instances of vehicles crashing into Ollie's stores, a national chain with 558 locations in 31 states whose motto is "Good Stuff Cheap."
In 2018, a driver crashed into an Ollie's in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, while in 2022 a driver crashed an SUV into an Ollie's in Hanover, Pennsylvania.
"Well," McDonald said Monday, "now I guess Long Island's got one, too."
John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”
