Lawsuit: Restaurant worker gets drunk, drives owner’s truck into Little River home
A restaurant employee who crashed into a Horry County home while allegedly intoxicated and driving the business owner’s vehicle is being sued, along with his boss.
Mayson Pelep was attempting to take a turn off Highway 50 onto Mineola Avenue in Little River in the early morning hours of Aug. 17, 2025, when he missed the turn and instead drove the vehicle onto the property containing the residence of Dorothy Stocks, according to the lawsuit filed Feb. 11, 2026.
Pelep crashed into Stocks’ 2000 Ford F-250 truck and a utility trailer that were parked on the property. The impact caused the plaintiff’s vehicle to crash into a car trailer and a building . There also was damage to the landscaping and the fencing, the suit said.
The lawsuit alleges that before Pelep drove the vehicle, he was at Lava Korean Steakhouse on the night of Aug. 16, 2025, and consumed “numerous” alcoholic beverages, becoming intoxicated. Suzan Heryadi, owner of the Myrtle Beach area restaurant, then allegedly instructed Pelep to drive another employee/patron home in Heryadi’s vehicle.
Heryadi and the restaurant also are named in the suit.
A message left for Heryadi at the restaurant was not returned. A phone number for Pelep could not be located.
The suit says that Heryadi should have known that Pelep was intoxicated and unfit to drive, but entrusted the vehicle to him, creating a risk of harm to other persons and property.
Other employees at Lava either continued to serve Pelep or he was allowed to serve himself despite that he was becoming intoxicated, the suit said.
Pelep, 28, was arrested and charged by the South Carolina Highway Patrol with driving under the influence in the crash.
The suit said that Heryadi failed to have policies in place that would prevent employees from consuming alcohol during their employment duties, or that employees would remain after dinner service or the shift for the purposes of consuming alcohol.
The suit is asking for actual and punitive damages.
