Cowboy lassoes would-be bike thief

As a would-be thief tried to escape with a women’s bike in a Walmart parking lot in Eagle Point, Oregon on Friday morning a bystander sprung into action. Rancher Robert Borba was loading dog food and a camping tent into the back of his pickup truck and cattle trailer when he heard a women screaming that someone was stealing her bicycle.

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“I seen this fella trying to get up to speed on a bicycle,” the 28-year-old Borba told the Mail Tribune. “I wasn’t going to catch him on foot. I just don’t run very fast.”

Instead Borba, who was headed to California to help brand cattle, quickly brought out his horse, Long John, and went into pursuit of the thief.

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The thief had gotten on the bike but was having trouble getting up to speed as the gears were not cooperating and with the mounted pursuer headed his way ditched the bike and tried to flee on foot. Borba said that the suspect’s look of surprise when he realized he was being chased by a man on horseback was priceless.

Borba whose instinct was to put his professional skills to use, grabbed his rope and let fly, lassoing the man around his ankles causing him to fall to the ground. Borba called 911 and waited for police to arrive.

Eagle Point Sgt. Darin May told the Mail Tribune, “We’ve never had anyone lassoed and held until we got there. That’s a first for me.”

Borba, who makes a living as a rancher and ranch hand said, “I use a rope every day, that’s how I make my living. If it catches cattle pretty good, it catches a bandit pretty good.” The thief was arrested on a misdemeanor theft charge.

The Eagle Point Police Department wrote on their Facebook page that the thief was in custody and that the bike had been returned to the owner.