COLUMBIA (WACH) -- Customers poured into Albie's Place for more than food on Monday.
A sign outside the restaurant read “bin Laden dead –- free drinks all day.”
“I don't have a liquor license, so lemonade and iced tea is the best I can do,” says owner Albie Ferullo.
Nearly a decade ago, Albie Ferullo, who was living in Boston at the time, experienced the 9/11 terrorist attacks up close and personal.
Ferullo lost a friend who was a passenger on American Airlines flight 11, which crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center.
Ferullo also had another friend that worked on the 92nd floor of the south tower who barely made it out alive.
“He got out and walked less than 1,000 feet and the building collapsed.”
It's a day Ferullo says he will never forget and hopes his customers won't either.
“It's good to know that he (bin Laden) is gone now,” says Columbia resident Stanley Davis.
“I think it is liberating to be able to celebrate any way you like,” adds Sheldon White, a regular at Albie’s Place.
Ferullo estimated he served around five-hundred beverages, but believes it's a small price to pay to be alive and free.
“I am glad he didn't get the same rights as we have as American citizens, where you are innocent until proven guilty,” Ferullo says.
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