Two women in Alabama were on a mission from God. They were going to a candle supply shop, and there was nothing on this earth that was going to stop them. Not even a car-swallowing loading dock.
The women got lost on their way to pick up their waxy loot near Birmingham, Alabama, driving the wrong way between some industrial buildings, completely oblivious to a giant gaping hole in the ground.
Just listen to the horrible sounds the car makes after nosediving into the water-filled pit:
This video was actually featured on America’s Funniest Home Videos (which still exists!), and that terrible banging noise was apparently the driveshaft flopping against the car’s underbody (more likely, it was a CV axle, as there aren’t many cars out there with front driveshafts), according to Bangshift.
Even after the vehicle apparently started smoking (that could have just been water boiling off the exhaust, for all we know), one of the women seems largely unfazed, asking “Do you know where the Candle Supply is?”
Well, I think I have the answer. Here’s a Google Street View of Community Candle Supply in Pelham, Alabama. On the left is the loading dock very similar to the one that swallowed the car, and on the right is a sign.
A closer look shows that the sign is for Community Candle Supply.
And based on the picture of the storefront, which shows an awning over the entrance, it looks like that’s the candle shop right there on the right side of the alley:
They were so close—just a single row away— and yet so far.