Cowboy Lassos Bike-Thief — Rancher Snags Thief Outside Wal-Mart Parking Lot And Holds On Till Police Arrive [Video]

A cowboy lassoed an alleged bike thief outside a Wal-Mart parking lot.

Surprisingly, the incident that seemed to be straight out of a wild western movie didn’t happen in Texas, but at a supermarket located in Oregon.

A quick-thinking rancher used his skills to snag a bike thief by jumping on his horse and lassoing the man with a rope. The cowboy successfully snared the man who was attempting to get away on a bike he had just stolen. The cowboy then alerted the authorities and held on to the robber while they arrived.

Robert Borba, 28, was loading his truck in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Eagle Point, Oregon, when he heard a woman yell that her bike was being stolen, reported the Associated Press. Speaking about the incident, Borba said the following.

“A lady yelled out ‘He’s stealing my bike, he’s stealing my bike.’ “

Without a moment’s hesitation, the cowboy unhooked his horse, which he brought along in a trailer, and gave chase. Meanwhile, the unsuccessful thief had abandoned the bike and was trying to flee the scene on foot.

Eyewitnesses say the thief didn’t have a problem getting the bicycle running, but he didn’t expect gears. They added that he had extreme difficulty operating the levers of the gears, and figured it would be wise to disappear. Apparently, the bike started running, but being on the first gear, was moving quite slowly, perhaps making it one of the slowest escapes ever. Eventually, the bike thief must have figured running away would be a much faster option than getting arrested for attempting to steal a bike.

Borba was at the Eagle Point store loading dog food and a camping tent into his truck when he heard a woman screaming that someone was trying to steal her bike, reported Fox News. Borba then took his horse, Long John, out of its trailer and took off in the general direction of the screams.

“I seen this fella trying to get up to speed on a bicycle. I wasn’t going to catch him on foot. I just don’t run very fast.

“I use a rope every day, that’s how I make my living. If it catches cattle pretty good, it catches a bandit pretty good.”

Borba said he grabbed his rope and let it fly, lassoing the man around his legs and causing him to tumble to the ground, dragging him like a roped cattle to the end of the parking lot, reported the Medford Mail Tribune.

Caught by the rope snare, the thief stumbled and fell, but caught a tree to attempt an escape. However, Borba and Long John kept the rope pretty taut. Multiple people then gathered at the scene and captured rather comical photos of a full-grown man hanging between a tree and a rope that was held by a cowboy riding his horse.

“The suspect’s look of surprise at being chased by a man on horseback was priceless. He even asked me ‘Do you have a badge to do this?’ “

The Eagle Point police reached the scene of attempted robbery in about fifteen minutes and arrested the thief, identified as 22-year-old Victorino Arellano-Sanchez. The police described him as a transient from the Seattle area, but admitted they had never seen such a spectacle before.

“We’ve never had anyone lassoed and held until we got there. That’s a first for me,” said Eagle Point Sgt. Darin May.

Arellano-Sanchez is jailed in Jackson County on charges of misdemeanor theft charge. Meanwhile, Borba has become the town hero for galloping to help a damsel in distress and lassoing the culprit.

[Photo by Scott Stulberg/Getty Images]