The 5-Foot Mom Who Took On Three Walmart Beer Thieves

What did Monique Lawless do at a Texas Walmart?

It wasn't her beer. Monique Lawless had nothing personal at stake when she saw three men walking out of a Walmart store in Alvin, Texas, with three cases of beer they hadn't paid for. She was a customer, not an employee.

Yet Lawless — who stands just under 5 feet tall and weighs 125 pounds — took off in pursuit of three much larger men.

How did the chase end?

What happened next was caught on the store's surveillance video. Lawless sprinted out the doors after the suspects, and when she saw them climbing into a car parked in a fire lane, she never broke stride: she leapt onto the hood and began stomping on the windshield, screaming at them that they were not going to get away with it.

The driver started the car. Lawless slid off, grabbed the driver's-side door handle, and was dragged a short distance before hitting the pavement hard. She declined medical treatment at the scene — her nose swollen, her face scraped.

The three alleged thieves, brothers aged 19 to 21, were arrested about an hour later at another Walmart by state troopers.

Why did she do it?

"I'm just sick of the lawlessness," the 42-year-old told the Houston Chronicle. "They knew their chances of getting caught were slim to none. Those kids would have gotten away with it, celebrated their theft and probably continue to do it."

Asked later whether she would do it again, she was honest: she said she wouldn't go to the extreme of jumping on the vehicle if she had it to do over. A police captain told the paper he admired her courage — but said she had put herself in grave danger.

Both things can be true. The bystanders who act are the reason thieves don't always get away. They are also, sometimes, one lucky moment away from a very different headline. Lawless got the good version. She earned it.