Shortly after 3 o’clock on Tuesday morning, a boxy delivery truck crashed into multiple vehicles and a house in Brooklyn, New York, in what the driver described to authorities as an attempt to avoid a cat. It would have been an entertaining but otherwise not particularly notable occurrence of feline protection in New York City, but for one unusual detail: The truck happened to have the face of actor Ryan Reynolds smugly peering out from three sides of it.
The box truck, you see, was clad in an advertisement for Aviation Gin, a liquor distillery owned in part by the Canadian actor, motorcycle enthusiast, and insufferably charming husband of Blake Lively. Which meant Reynolds’s giant face wound up 10 feet above the ground in the middle of the sidewalk in front of 164 Russell Street in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Greenpoint after the delivery vehicle smashed through the parked cars and into the three-story residential building.
That address, unfortunately, happened to be occupied by residents who, in spite of New York’s reputation as a city that never sleeps, were deep in dreamland when the truck plowed into the front of their home and woke them up to the sight of Van Wilder’s giant face right outside their window.
“It literally, really, just shook the house,” a woman identified as the owner told News 12. “It was kind of like an earthquake. The first thing that went through my mind was that maybe a house blew up around us.”
“I certainly didn’t expect it to be a truck.”
In spite of some early reports to the contrary, no one was injured in the crash, according to Spectrum News / New York 1, a statement that presumably also applies to both the cat and Reynolds’s reputation. That said, a Subaru Outback and a Nissan Rogue both appear to have suffered significant damage from the crash.
The residents were order to vacate the property after the crash, in order for the New York City Department of Buildings to inspect it. (The city said the American Red Cross will provide shelter to those forced out due to the crash.)
It’s not yet known whether the driver of the truck will face charges. Considering how shaken up said driver presumably was after the accident, however, here’s hoping Reynolds won’t mind if the driver helped himself to a bottle of Aviation from the back after the DUI testing was completed.