Houston pet store worker Alize James didn’t let fear stop her from clinging to the hood of a speeding car as thieves tried to escape with a $10,000 bulldog puppy.
“I could barely hold on,” James told NBC’s Dallas-Fort Worth affiliate on Tuesday, as seen in the video below. “I was so scared.”
Dramatic video of the Nov. 4 incident shows James on the hood of a sedan as the suspects attempted to escape.
James was working her shift at the BullyKamp pet store when a man and a woman expressed interest in buying the puppy. When she stepped away to find paperwork, the couple grabbed the dog and fled, according to reports.
James stood in front of the car to stop the dog-nappers, but it accelerated. She was thrust onto the hood and windshield, where she stayed for about 10 minutes as the car weaved, she said. The car finally stopped and the man got out, punched her and swept her off the hood, while the woman scratched her face and yanked off a necklace, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote, citing a police report.
The two got away with the dog, which has yet to be recovered, Houston Police Department Kese Smith told HuffPost on Wednesday. However, Houston police on Monday arrested a female suspect, Royshana King, 21, and charged her with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, Smith said.
Police got King’s name from a similar name she used on an application at BullyKamp, according to the Star-Telegram. Her alleged accomplice has not been found, but Smith said investigators are “following up on leads.”
The dog had recently had surgery and required medicine. “My mind is focused on her health, I obviously didn’t care about my well-being,” James told the NBC affiliate.
While James showed courage in her response to the thieves, Smith discouraged others from taking such action.
“We always advise people to let us do our job, so if there’s an issue, call the police and let us handle it,” he said. “Don’t ever put yourself in danger.”