CHAMPAIGN — A man unhappy with the service he got at a Champaign store earlier this week took out his frustration by throwing a bottle rocket in the door.

“It sounded like a gunshot. It was pretty loud,” said Evan Dowers, general manager of Advance Auto Parts at 805 W. Marketview Drive.

The incident occurred just before noon Tuesday.

Dowers said Derek Maxwell, a customer he’s familiar with, was upset over having purchased the wrong brake pads for a car he was working on for another man.

The other man was with Maxwell in the store and Dowers said Maxwell was wanting that man or the store to compensate him for time he had already invested in removing a tire to start the job.

"At first, we thought he was joking,” said Dowers, who said the mix-up over the pads came as a result of Maxwell’s customer giving him the wrong model year.

Dowers said Maxwell ended up getting the correct brake pads to put on the car but no break on the brake pad purchase from the store.

“As he was leaving, he decided to throw a bottle rocket in our entry way. We thought it was a gunshot. The entry way filled with smoke,” Dowers said, adding there were about 10 customers in the store when it happened. “We had several females at the counter who were upset by it.”

An employee saw Maxwell toss the bottle rocket so they knew what it was. The exploding rocket did not get inside the store’s main area and no one was hurt, Dowers said.  

A police report said Maxwell, of the 0-100 block of Tulip Tree Drive, was issued a notice to appear  in court on a city ordinance violation that he possessed fireworks.

Dowers said he was sorry Maxwell was unhappy.

“Normally, we give awesome service,” Dowers said.