CLEVELAND — A customer attacked an elderly couple at their West Cleveland store Friday afternoon.
In cell phone video taken by the store owner, you can hear a disagreement between the couple and the woman over what is said to be an $11.85 transaction.
David Jo’s parents own Chic Beauty Supply on Lorain Road in Cleveland. He gave News 5 cell phone and surveillance video of the incident.
“All I am trying to do is get my items,” the woman said in the video to the two store owners behind the counter.
“She tried to pay for these products and the card was declined,” said Jo. “It was one of those pre-paid credit cards and she put the pin numbers in and was declined and she was not happy.”
In the video, you can hear his parents explain that she cannot leave with the items because there wasn’t money on the card.
“It’s not cleared. We cannot give you anything ‘cause it’s not cleared,” they emphasized to the customer.
The woman begins to yell at the two and tells them to call the police. Jo’s mom then tells her husband to call the police and that’s when the woman attacks them.
“Watching them be so helpless and beaten like that so brutally was tough to watch,” said Jo.
The cell phone video goes black after the woman lunged at the couple, but surveillance video caught the vicious attack on camera. It shows the woman attack Jo’s father first and when his mother steps in, the woman punches and drags his mother across the store floor by her hair. Jo said the woman knocked his mother unconscious.
“I knew what I was watching but I couldn’t believe what I was watching,” he said. “My father was bloodied up pretty bad. When I saw my mom today, she was crying, she was upset, she had bruises all over her body.”
He said his parents are bruised and bloodied, but seem to be physically okay. He doesn’t know the woman’s intentions behind the attack but believes she knew she could overpower his elderly parents, who are in their 60s.
“Just because they’re so weak and helpless, she decided it would be okay to attack them, which is unbelievable to me, and just over an $11 purchase,” said Jo.
The attacker is now wanted by Cleveland police for felonious assault and vandalism.
Jo said his parents are proud people, and despite being scared, they returned to work Monday to clean up the store and conduct business as usual.
“All they want to do is, again, work hard and make it here as any immigrants do when they come in and try to make a better life for themselves and their children,” said Jo.
But he doesn’t feel comfortable with them going back to work until she is caught.
“I need to find this person and make sure she is held accountable for the damage she has caused,” Jo said.
If you know anything, you’re asked to call Cleveland police.
