AUBURN — It wasn’t a drive-in movie theater, but that didn’t stop a car from paying a visit to the lobby on Sunday.

A 21-year-old woman learning to drive in the parking lot of Flagship Cinema on Center Street mistook the gas pedal for the brake in the 1999 Ford she was driving at 11 a.m. Sunday, police wrote in an accident report. The theater was closed and vacant at the time, police said.

Qeil Abdishakur of Lewiston, who doesn’t have a driver’s license, was northbound in the lot. She attempted a left turn in front of the theater building, but accelerated instead of slowing for the turn, due to inexperience, the report said.

The car crashed through the two sets of front doors and struck the candy counter.

The owner of the car, Rashid A. Mohamed, 29, of Lewiston, was in a passenger seat. There were two other passengers. No injuries were reported, police said.

The accident report estimated damage to the building at $2,000; to the car, $8,000. It was towed.

A crew worked to repair the damage Monday. The theater stayed closed.

A repair crew replaces the front doors of Flagship Cinemas on Center Street in Auburn Monday a day after a car accidentally smashed through the doors and drove up to the candy counter.


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