Seattle woman fights off violent bike thief with ‘Super Wrench’
Aug 2, 2019, 5:38 AM
Patricia Ramos was alone in her bike rental store when the man came in around 10:30 a.m. Monday. This man would eventually assault her, breaking her finger. But the man would come to know that Ramos doesn’t go down without a fight, and that she hits back, hard, with a “super wrench.”
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The man — who is still unknown to detectives — initially came into Pedal Anywhere in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood about a month ago with a bike he wanted to fix up. But Ramos cross-checked the bicycle on the bike index — a registry of stolen bikes. She was able to see that it indeed was stolen, and read the police report. It had the owner’s contact information.
When the man came back, she told him that they would not return the stolen bike. Instead, Ramos said he could have a donated bike that had been fixed up.
“He chose to take the working bike,” Ramos told The Candy, Mike, and Todd Show. “He left us his old stolen bike; we contacted the owner. But he wanted the working bike because he wanted a working bike.”
The man left, but returned Monday morning, riding on yet another bike. Ramos said a couple of her team members were away from the shop at that exact moment. The man asked if she could check on the current bike he was on, to see if it was registered as stolen. Ramos didn’t help him.
He returned yet again some time later. From her interaction with him, it seemed like someone else was mad that he did not have the original bike — the one he traded on his first visit. And therefore, he was mad.
“He said, ‘You guys stole my bike. You took my bike and I know you have it and I know you stole it from me. I want it back, and I want to talk to the man. The man … he has my bike and I need to talk to him,'” Ramos recalled.
“I was alone, completely alone in the shop,” she said.
She then attempted to reason with the man. She told him that the bike was stolen in the first place and that they didn’t have it. She said “the man” was not there and asked if they could talk later. He wouldn’t budge.
“He said, ‘Nope, I know the man is back there. I know you’re lying, just let me through,'” Ramos said. “Then he started threatening me. He said, ‘Ya know, all my friends, the camp, they really want to come bust your windows, they really want to come shoot you up … I’ve been the nice one, telling them not to. But maybe I shouldn’t have, because look at how you’re being to me.'”
Ramos wasn’t buying it. But that didn’t deter the man.
“He said, ‘When your windows are shot up, when you are shot because you didn’t give me a bike, you are not going to think it’s funny,'” Ramos said. “I said, ‘I don’t think it’s funny now. I don’t appreciate the threats. Please leave.'”
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That’s when words turned to action. The man assaulted Ramos, throwing her to the ground, slamming her into the counter. She broke a finger. He said he was just going to take whatever he wanted. He eventually pushed her to the other side of the store — that was a mistake. That’s where Ramos picked up “super wrench,” a massive, 10 pound, metal wrench that is nearly the size of her arm.
“My fear is he is either gonna start breaking things, he is going to start hurting me, he is going to come back and actually shoot up the store … I was terrified,” Ramos said. “… that’s when I knew I had to defend myself. Not just my life in that moment, but the store, my employees … I kind of just went into defense mode.”
“That’s when I went for the wrench,” she said.
Ramos lifted super wrench above her head and ran across the room at the man, striking him as he attempted to pick up a bike and leave. She got a few swings in, and the man fought back. Eventually, he rode off on the bike.
“This is one of those situations where I didn’t know how I was going to react,” she said. “I’m usually pretty peaceful, so I didn’t expect it. But I’ve never been this scared. I’m a small business owner, I think small business owners are fighters by nature.”
Police are investigating the incident. The suspect is unknown. If anyone has any information about the the crime, they are asked to contact the Seattle Police Department.
