Staff photo by Dean Shalhoup A Merrimack police officer escorts to a cruiser one of two people arrested following Thursday 's crash at Auto Workshop, 556 Daniel Webseter Highway, as other officers search the car at left.

MERRIMACK – Two people were arrested and the owner of the Auto Workshop was left without his roadside sign Thursday when a mid-size sedan veered off the road and careened through the yard and parking lot of the Daniel Webster Highway business.

Nobody was hurt, but longtime Auto Workshop owner Paul Masry and his employees were plenty surprised, he said, when all of a sudden they “heard a big ‘Kaboom'” shortly after noon.

“I looked up, saw a big cloud of dust over there,” Masry said, looking out his office window and gesturing toward a late-model Hyundai, which was surrounded by police officers and firefighters who had been called to the shop at 556 Daniel Webster Highway.

Police weren’t immediately available Thursday to identify the suspects or give additional information on the incident, such as the cause and what charges the suspects face.

Meanwhile, the “Kaboom” Masry heard, he later surmised, was the sound of his sign splintering under the impact of the suspect car. Oddly, both support posts remained standing, apparently untouched by the car.

“He must have gone right in between them,” Masry said. “I don’t know how he did it, but he did.”

The car, its trunk lid sprang open and its windshield spider-webbed, then struck a parked Honda Accord before coming to rest about 10 yards from the sign.

It appeared the suspect vehicle was headed north on Daniel Webster Highway when it crossed into the southbound lane and onto the shoulder, where Masry believes it bounced off the remains of a snowbank before taking out his sign and hitting the parked Accord.

After police transported the suspects, believed to be a man and a woman, a flatbed tow truck arrived to remove the suspect vehicle and collect the debris it left in its wake.

Meanwhile, Merrimack resident Bob Koontz and his wife surveyed the damage to the Accord and took photos. Koontz said the car belongs to his son, who had dropped it off earlier Thursday for service.

“Paul called me right away,” Koontz said, referring to Masry. “He said to come down as soon as I could, that my son’s car had been hit.”

The fact that his son’s car was involved in a crash while parked and driverless came as quite a surprise, Koontz said.

“One doesn’t expect to hear that your car was (in a crash) just sitting on the lot,” he said.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or@Telegraph_DeanS.