A good deed went bad. It all started when a woman tried to stop a shoplifter in the Springdale Shopping Center near E. Pine and North Lewis Avenue and ended near E. Reading and N. Atlanta Place.FOX23’s Abbie Alford reports on the attacker and the surveillance video that caught the thief on tape.
The video shows a man who looks courteous; he opens the door for a woman at the Family Dollar. However, as he tries to walk out of the store with some laundry detergent and a bag of goods the clerk tries to stop him.
"’You didn't pay for that’ and he said, 'yes, I did'" and I was like, 'Show her the receipt’ and he said ‘no’," says Miranda Barnett.
Barnett who works next to Family Dollar thought the thief was going to attack the clerk so he she tried to stop him by getting in front of his car. The car hadn’t been turned on.
"I was more up on it and my feet were off the ground whenever he put it in gear I had to grab onto the hood," says Barnett.
Or else Barnett thought he was going to run her over.
"If I don't hang on I am going to die. He's going to try to hit me and he is trying to kill me," says Barnett. “There was a little space where I could grab because that was the only way I could hold on because I had my fingers inside the hood looking at him through the windshield."
During the near six block ride, the woman says the attacker kept trying to throw her from the car.
"Every time he tried to knock me off the car or stop or a tap on the breaks to try to throw me off every time he didn't succeed you could tell he was getting more angry," says Barnett.
Six blocks later he stops but Miranda couldn’t get away easily.
"He came out of the car with a screwdriver but he didn't use it he pulled me by my ankle and pulled me off the car," says Barnett. "I was leaning up to get up and when I did he punched me in the back of the head right there."
So the attacker took off.
"I like to help. I don't like being the one who says, 'Yeah I saw that’ and didn't do anything,” say Barnett.
The woman describes her attacker as a black man with grayish stubble on his face. He is about six feet tall and weighs about 175 pounds.
The car he was driving was a late 1980’s maroon Oldsmobile with damage on the front and back of the driver’s side of the car.
If you have any information about this crime call Crime Stoppers at (918) 596-COPS (2677) or text a tip to “CRIMES” (274637) and begin your message with “TIP918” or you can submit a tip online at www.tipsubmit.com. Remember you never have to give your name and your tip could lead to a cash reward.
