Report: Man who allegedly attacked Seattle restaurateur released

UPDATE: The man who allegedly assaulted a Seattle restaurateur at a co-op marina was released from jail Monday.

Prosecutors told the West Seattle Blog no charges have been filed.

The man’s bail was set at $50,000, but that later changed to “conditional release,” the West Seattle Blog reports.

“He charged me and I punched him and knocked him down”

Tim Ptak, a Seattle restaurateur and resident,  received a phone call Wednesday indicating there might be a prowler at the Jim Clark Marina. Ptak, the owner of Seattle’s Smarty Pants and Hudson, keeps a boat at the modest, co-op marina and decided to take a look around on his way to work.

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When Ptak got there, he searched the small marina and poked his head in a friend’s boathouse. Inside, he saw a man drinking a beer and popping popcorn. When Ptak told the guy to leave, the man first said he had permission to be there. When Ptak questioned the claim, the man attacked him.

“He charged me and I punched him and knocked him down,” Ptak said in an interview on KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don Show. “And I called 911 to get some help.”

Ptak, 45, said he agreed to talk with Ron and Don because he feels that the city isn’t doing enough to curb the crime and trash problems associated with the growing homeless population. He said he’s called the city about crimes but has seen little-to-no help at the marina near Harbor Island, the site of several unofficial homeless encampments.

Ptak said the danger in his neighborhood near the marina has been ramping up for months. Last week’s episode, he said, confirmed his worries.

“After that phone call, (the burglar) asked if he could have a cigarette and when I turned and looked at him, he jumped up and pepper sprayed me in the eye,” Ptak said.

The man charged Ptak again. Nearly blinded from the pepper spray and having difficulty breathing, Ptak explained that he fought with the man — first punching him and then reaching for a discarded grab rail on the ground and hitting his attacker in the head. The man fell into the water and went under.

Ptak grabbed for the man’s hood to keep him from drowning.

“He ended up swimming away from me and went under the boathouse floor,” Ptak said.

Ptak called his wife, Victoria. She arrived and so did paramedics. While Ptak was being treated for minor injuries and the pepper spray, police arrived with divers and a helicopter.

“It was quite a scene,” he told Ron and Don. “The divers were able to locate the guy. He had wedged himself in an air pocket under the floor. And about an hour later, they ended up saw cutting the floor up and pulled him out.”

According to the police, the man was arrested and treated at Harborview Medical Center for injuries and hypothermia for his hour-long soak in the 50-degree water.

Ptak said he takes some comfort in the fact that neither the older security guard who works at the marina nor any of the 70-something co-op members ran into the burglar first.

“Things could have ended much differently,” Ptak said after the interview. “We might be having a memorial today for one of my friends.”

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