“Customers Saved by Tiki Statue When Tree Crashes Through Restaurant”

There is something to be said for the safety that sitting near a Tiki statue can provide you.  Here is a story from Ventura, California how the Tiki saved the customers.

     The owners of a restaurant in Ventura, California, say a tiki statue saved four people when a 150-foot-tall palm tree came crashing through the roof during a day of powerful wind gusts in Southern California.

     An interior security camera captured footage of the tree falling through the roof of VenTiki Lounge Sunday in downtown Ventura, narrowly missing four people on the patio. The footage shows restaurant employees running into view as the tree snaps in two after striking the roof.  The tree was one of several knocked down in Los Angeles and Ventura counties Sunday due to damaging winds.

     Anthony Longoria is the head chef at VenTiki Tiki Lounge and Lanai.   "We will have 8 to 10 people up on the lanai on a busy night eating and had that had happened ... but it didn't it happened exactly the best way and when the tree came down and went down the railing it stopped 6-inches from the main gas line for the heater, so we got really lucky," said Longoria.

Read More at http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Tree-Falls-Ventura-Restaurant-VenTiki-Caught-on-Camera-367262011.html