A car overhanging a retaining wall, teetering and on the verge of plunging down to a parking lot below -- with the driver inside.

The scene played out Wednesday morning -- not in a Hollywood movie, but in a lot off Battery Street in Burlington, where the reality didn't quite match the hype. The wall was about 5 feet tall, so the vehicle's plunge would not have been too spectacular -- or disastrous.

In any case, the episode had a happy ending. No one was hurt; the car was still drivable; and the only real damage was to the driver's wallet -- the fee paid the towing company to pull the car off the brink.

Here's what happened:

Debora Cherington, 55, of Calais steered her 2004 Subaru Forester into the parking lot at 196 Battery St. shortly before 8 a.m. -- as she does every week before a regular Wednesday appointment. She pulled up in front of a parking sign at the southern edge of the lot, but then she put her foot down on the wrong pedal -- the accelerator instead of the brake. The vehicle lunged forward and wound up hanging over the retaining wall above the parking lot for an adjacent business, Kelliher Samets Volk.

Cherington stayed where she was and hoped for the best -- she could feel the vehicle tipping -- until the Burlington Fire Department arrived.

Firefighters got her out, and Spillane's towed the car back into the upper lot. The vehicle suffered no major damage, but an apparent oil leak would have to be checked out. Cherington planned to call her husband about that.

Contact Tim Johnson at 660-1808 or tjohnson@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com. Sign up for Free Press headlines, delivered free to your e-mail, at www.burlingtonfreepress.com/newsletters.