Woman fights car thieves with bold bluff

LACEY, Wash. — A 50-year-old nurse used her finger to convince the thieves who stole her car that she had a gun and wanted her car back.

Beatriz Pardo told KIRO 7's South Sound Reporter Richard Thompson that she pulled into the Fred Meyer parking lot in Lacey on Thursday and spotted her car, which had been stolen five days earlier. She said that she became determined to get it back.

"That is my car," Pardo said. "That is my chance, I can't let it go, that car."

Pardo called 911. But, before police arrived, the alleged thieves were preparing to leave, so Pardo confronted them.
"I went three times, 'Give me the keys to the car,'" Pardo said.

The two suspected thieves, Nathan Austin and Robin Miller, denied having the keys.

Pardo then made a bold move.

"At that moment, immediately I grab (Miller) and I say, "Come over here,'" Pardo said.

"I put the finger over here," she said, demonstrating how she used her finger, pointed like a gun, and jammed it into Miller's back.

"I hold her and I told her, 'If you don't give me the keys to the car, I kill you. I'm going to shoot you,'" Pardo recalled, demonstrating how she walked the woman and man over to the vehicle, where he unlocked the door with her keys, complete with a photo of her son on the key chain.

Pardo then told them the police were coming.

"They start to fight with me, pushing and everything," Pardo said.

Austin and Miller ran off and were captured by police a few minutes later.

Pardo's husband, Calvin Dawson, is stunned. "I think her anger just got the better of her, and she wanted her car back," he said. "So, good work."

Pardo told Thompson that she knows what she did was dangerous, but she's also glad she did it.

"That was a real adventure for me," she said. "That was amazing."

While police would never recommend anyone do what she did, Pardo said that the officers on the scene did congratulate her on getting her car back.

KIRO