Eagle Point, Oregon police say Victorino Arellano-Sanchez tried to steal a woman’s bicycle in the parking lot of the town’s Walmart Friday morning. It weren’t good judgment.
Near the scene of the alleged heist was local rancher Robert Borda, 28, loading dog food and camping gear into his truck. He heard the woman yelling that someone was stealing her bicycle, and he took action. He took his horse, named Long John, out of his horse trailer, chased the bike rider down, lassoed him, and held him for police.
“I seen this fella trying to get up to speed on a bicycle,” Borda told the Medford Mail Tribune. “I wasn’t going to catch him on foot. I just don’t run that fast.”
The alleged bike-jacker tried to out-peddle Borda and Long John, but abandoned the bike as his pursuers closed on him. He attempted to escape on foot. But Long John has four on the floor, and so it was no contest. Borda lassoed the man around the legs and held him like a steer until police arrived and made an arrest.
“We’ve never had anyone lassoed and held until we got there,” Eagle Point Police Sergeant Darin May said. “That’s a first for me.” May described Arellano-Sanchez as a transient from Seattle. He has been charged with misdemeanor theft.
“I use a rope every day; that’s how I make my living,” said Borda, a former rodeo cowboy. “If it catches cattle pretty good, it catches a bandit pretty good.”
Exactly so. A very heartening story. You know there is still some America left out there when the cowboy can still save the day. Thank ya’ pardner. After doing his civic duty, Borda went on to California that afternoon to help a friend brand cattle. All in a day’s work.