KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A pair of Midtown businesses are still cleaning up after a man accidentally hit a sprinkler system in the Ambassador building last week.
Dear Society and Monarch Coffee were drenched as water poured in from their ceilings on June 14th.
Tyler Netti was moving a big couch with his brother up the stairs to his 3rd floor apartment in the Ambassador building when it didn’t fit. As they were taking the couch back down the stairs, they accidently hit one of the sprinklers.
“It ripped the sprinkler off and I think it ripped into a water line because it just sprayed water for like probably a good hour and a half before someone was finally able to turn the water off,” said Netti.
Below, the two businesses had to be evacuated.
“Really the entire front half of the building had like water coming through the ceiling,” said Monarch Coffee owner Tyler Rovenstine.
Rovenstine found out about the damage on his way to work that morning.
“That was a moment of panic where you’re kind of not sure really how bad it actually is and you know we are thinking that we may have to pull out all of the dry wall, that was my initial reaction that we may have to close at least a month to put drywall back into the space,” he said.
Some ceiling tiles fell off and the fire department tried to squeegee the water out of Monarch Coffee, but Rovenstine said luckily they didn’t have to demolish any of the dry wall.
“We have one grinder that needs some work - it got some wet coffee in it and so we are trying to get that sorted out - and we have some wood chairs and some wood table tops that got some water damage,” he said.
Netti came clean and confessed he was the culprit and wishes his move-in experience wasn’t so dampening.
“It was a total accident you know, just wrong place at the wrong time I guess, real bad luck, but yeah I deeply apologize.”
Both businesses and Netti have insurance. Dear Society tells 41 Action News they don’t know when they will be back open for business because they still have a lot to clean up, however Monarch Coffee plans to open on Friday.
The Ambassador building is owned and operated by MAC Properties.
A Go Fund Me pagefor Monarch Coffee has been established to help with expenses and pay for staff salaries while the business is closed down.
