Unsuspecting Bike Thief Pursued and Lassoed by Real Cowboy on Horseback in Store Parking Lot

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When a woman in a Walmart parking lot in southern Oregon saw a man stealing her bicycle, she called out for help. Little did she know that the help would arrive like something out of a Western movie: a real-life cowboy on horseback who lassoed the thief and tied him to a tree.

Robert Borba is a ranch hand outside Eagle Point, Oregon, who rides and ropes for a living. Borba just happened to be on his way to a roundup and cattle branding in California when he stopped to buy some food for his sheepdogs at the department outlet.

That was when he heard a woman shouting that a man had stolen her bike and saw the perpetrator whizz by. “I wasn’t going to catch him on foot. I just don’t run very fast,” Borba told the Mail Tribune. That’s when he got on his horse Long John and caught up with and lassoed the thief, keeping him tied up until the police arrived.

The whole scene struck many witnesses, the suspect, and even the police as something out of an old spaghetti Western. As Borba was on his way to a branding, he was fully equipped with his truck, horse trailer, and his trusty steed. When he heard the young woman’s distress, it was natural to turn to his horse.

“I use a rope every day, that’s how I make my living,” Borba explained. “If it catches cattle pretty good, it catches a bandit pretty good.” Thankfully, he was able to saddle up quickly and ride after the criminal, who was pedaling by foot as fast as he could to escape.

As Borba approached, he knew just what to do. “A couple swings and then I threw it at him, just like I would a steer,” the modern-day John Wayne told CBS.

After being brought to the ground, the stunned robber, identified by police as Victorino Arellano-Sanchez, attempted to wriggle away, but Borba wasn’t letting him go anywhere. Borba recounted the exchange of words as the thief pleaded in protest, “‘What are you doing, man? You got a badge?’ And I’m like, ‘No, I ain’t got a badge.’”

Police were just as surprised, as a 911 recording shared with CBS revealed. Borba explained to the dispatcher, “We got a guy who just stole a bike here at Walmart. I got him roped and tied to a tree.” After a pause, the operator responds, “What!?” in disbelief.

Eagle Point police officer Chris Adams arrived minutes later to book the suspect and admire Borba’s handiwork. “I looked up, and from the horse, there was a rope connected to the ankle of a gentleman on the ground holding onto a tree,” Adams said, adding that he would gladly have the cowboy by his side while on duty.

Borba told the police officer that the force could learn a thing or two from the ranch hands’ techniques. “I told the cop, I said, ‘Man, you guys ought to pick up a rope and throw that gun away. You might have better luck with it.’ He started laughing,” Borba said. “If it was my wife or my little girl, I would hope somebody would help her if I wasn’t around.”