LYNNWOOD – It was something Janice Lewis might see on her favorite television show “Cops” – a handcuffed man in his underwear running from police.
Except this man was headed right for Lewis as she was entering JC Penney to do a little Christmas shopping Monday morning.
“I get pushed and shoved a little sometimes at the mall, but nothing like this,” the 60-year-old Lynnwood grandmother said.
Without knowing why the 18-year-old man was in cuffs or what he might do, Lewis latched on to him until Lynnwood police officer Anne Codiga tackled the suspect.
“That’s when I started shaking,” said Lewis, who broke a finger and bruised her hand in the scuffle.
“It just happened so fast,” she said.
The chase began across the street from the mall just after 11 a.m. when employees at Verity Credit Union reported that a man was trying to use an account that wasn’t his.
Police subsequently arrested the man for allegedly stealing from the bank. An officer had handcuffed him and was leading him out the door when the 18-year-old gave a shove and sprinted away. He ran down a grassy embankment with two officers in pursuit.
As he ran, his baggy jeans slid to his ankles and he tripped over them, falling in the middle of 33rd Avenue W. Rolling around on the road, he flipped off his shoes and wriggled out of his pants.
“He shot up like a jack-in-the-box and was gone,” said Codiga, who was nearly hit by a car as she chased the man across the street.
The man, wearing colored boxer shorts, one sock and a jacket and shirt, ran into the Alderwood parking garage.
Codiga searched row after row of cars, yelling at the man to give up. She saw his head pop above the cars, and went after him again.
“He was running like a ballistic madman,” Codiga said.
Lewis had seen the man running from police near the credit union, but thought the officers had caught him. She was shocked to see him suddenly running toward her. He threw open a door with his elbow, and Lewis latched onto the man’s jacket.
“He wasn’t saying anything. I don’t think I was saying anything either,” she said.
She lost her hold on the man once, but clamped on harder a second time. Just as her husband opened a second door into the store, Codiga grabbed the suspect in a bear hug.
The youth, 5 feet 6 inches tall and 190 pounds, flipped the officer over his shoulder. The two landed on the floor. The man was “kicking and screaming” as Codiga tried to restrain him, Lewis said.
Lewis’ husband and two other shoppers grabbed onto his legs and shoulders until a second officer arrived. The man was booked into jail for theft and assault. He was released from jail, but was arrested again on Friday morning, Cmdr. Paul Watkins said.
He is a suspect in the theft of at least eight cars in the Lynnwood area in the past month, and also is believed to have snatched two purses, he said.
The suspect allegedly threw a woman to the ground and stole her purse outside the Mountlake 9 Theaters in Mountlake Terrace Nov. 5, Watkins said. Two days later, he allegedly pushed a woman into a shopping cart and stole her purse outside Fred Meyer in Lynnwood.
Police commended Lewis for her quick action.
“We often have citizens assist us, but it’s less frequent that they physically step in,” Watkins said. “We don’t advise it, but we applaud Mrs. Lewis’ efforts.”
Lewis, who has 10 grandchildren and loves shopping at JC Penney, wanted to make sure the man didn’t make it into the store.
“He could have knocked someone down,” she said.
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