Attack on elderly Fresno veteran caught on camera

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- An elderly Fresno veteran is sharing his story with Action News after a woman attacked him.

The confrontation was caught on camera, but the suspect has not been caught.

If Mickey the pug is scowling more than usual, it's because of what happened to his owner, Victor Bejarano, two weeks ago.

A few seconds after an SUV pulled into the parking lot of a southeast Fresno AutoZone, the 73-year-old walked into the same lot. Surveillance video shows a woman leave the SUV, walk right up to Bejarano, and gave him a reason to scowl. "I never knew there was anything wrong until the girl started coming up towards me and asking me for the wallet," he said.

Bejarano struggled with the woman for quite a while, and although he was giving up about four inches and 40 pounds, he wouldn't give up the fight to save his wallet -- no matter who was trying to take it. "In the beginning she told me, 'You wouldn't hit a woman,' and I said, 'You're not a woman. I mean, you're attacking me,'" he said.

The military veteran tells Action News he didn't even have any money, just a debit card. But he actually lost his wallet about six months ago and just recently finished the frustrating process of getting everything replaced. So, he kept struggling -- and escaped inside the store where nobody stepped in to help.

"You see patrons inside the store," said Fresno police Sgt. Mark Hudson. "They're looking at her assaulting him. He continues to struggle, continues not to be a victim of a robbery."

The fight moved through the store and out a back door where someone finally announced police were on the way. The woman walked back to her SUV and left.

Bejarano stuck around to get the part he needed to fix a friend's van. The retired mechanic still does work to help people out when they're short on money. He says the attacker just took the wrong approach to get his good side. "But if she told me 'Hey, I have family I've got kids, I would've given her $10," he said.

Police say the woman was about 5'8" and 200 pounds.

Her SUV was a green Ford Explorer about 15 years old.