Seattle plumbers bear-sprayed by brazen burglars
Feb 6, 2026, 12:40 PM | Updated: 2:09 pm
(Photo courtesy of KIRO 7)
(Photo courtesy of KIRO 7)
Three plumbers are recovering after being bear-sprayed by thieves in West Seattle when they refused to let the suspects get away with their tools.
The incident happened on Thursday morning while the O’Neill Plumbing crew was working at a home in the neighborhood.
One of the plumbers walked outside and discovered two men taking tools from their work truck.
“I’m like, there’s no way we got broken into. And then this lock is laying on the ground. So obviously it was broken into,” said Ricky Gillespie, one of the plumbers.
The lock had been sawed off and left in pieces on the ground.
Elijah Amundson, a plumbing apprentice, said his instincts took over when he saw the thieves in action.
“Seeing them there, it was like a fight or flight type of situation. You don’t know what you want to do, but you don’t want your stuff taken, so you just got to jump on it, I guess,” Amundson said.
He didn’t hesitate. Amundson says he ran to the thieves’ car.
“I started grabbing everything out of their trunk, putting it, throwing it in our trunk. I noticed like, those are our tools. I started throwing them in,” he said.
The other two plumbers, Ricky and Colin Bartels, came out to help. But the thieves drove off, leaving behind the Sawzall they’d used to cut the truck’s lock.
Then, minutes later, the suspects returned.
“They pulled up next to the truck and they stayed in their car, and they wanted their tool back, and none of us were going to give it back to them,” Bartels said.
When the plumbers refused, that’s when the bear spray came out.
“I stepped behind the car and was trying to get their license plate and I called 911. And as I was doing that, I saw the bear mace come out of the car and hit him,” Gillespie said. “And then I started moving back towards the front of the car. And the driver stepped out of the vehicle and sprayed me.”
The plumbers flushed their eyes with milk and waited for the police. Despite the painful attack, they say they’d do it all again.
“This is our livelihood. This is how we feed our families, and it was just so crazy that they were willing to come back and be so brazen,” Gillespie said.
Each tool costs hundreds of dollars, and the plumbers managed to save every single one.
“It’s just the worst feeling. It’s tools that you have worked for, like, for a long time. So it’s like not letting them go… If you have the opportunity to not let them go, you do everything you can now, too,” said Bartels.
But Gillespie says he’s grateful the confrontation didn’t escalate further.
“As crazy as it sounds, we were all kind of glad we got bear-maced today and not shot. Because if those guys were willing to do that, who knows what they’re willing to do,” he said.
The plumbers say the thieves threatened to come back for them. Now they’re warning neighbors to stay vigilant. The suspects were driving a champagne-colored Toyota Camry.
If you have any information about this incident, contact the Seattle Police Department at 206-233-5000.
