Police said a Woodbury man avoided serious injuries when he drove a vehicle over an embankment and into a drainage pond near Walmart in Cottage Grove.
The incident happened shortly after 2:30 p.m. Sunday. According to police, the 74-year-old man was test-driving a vehicle when he drove through a fence in the store parking lot. The vehicle went over the roughly 8-foot embankment, landing in the pond along East Point Douglas Road.
Bystanders helped pull the man from the vehicle, and police then assisted the bystanders out of the water.
First-responders lifted the man in a basket-like stretcher over the retaining wall. He was transported to Regions Hospital in St. Paul as a precaution.
The driver did not remember anything after he hit the gas pedal, according to the report.
The submerged vehicle was removed from the pond Monday.
