A woman used hot wax to fend off a would-be thief in Dallas' Oak Cliff neighborhood Sunday night.
Teresa Mendez said she was on the 2500 block of Jefferson Boulevard, on her way home just after 8 p.m., when a man sprinted up to her in her front yard, pulled out a knife and demanded her bag and her money.
Mendez said she repeatedly told the man she didn’t have any money and she left her purse in the car.
Mendez works as a beautician and the bag she was carrying was full of nothing but plastic containers and miscellaneous items from her salon.
She said at one point she tried using a pair of scissors she had in the bag to fight off the man. When that didn’t work she said she used the only other thing she had, a container full of scalding hot wax which she threw at his face.
Mendez said the man ran up the road, with his skin peeling, jumped into a car with two other men and sped off.
Mendez’s husband, Antonio James, arrived home minutes after the incident.
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“I said, 'What happened?' She said, 'He tried to steal my bag.' I thought she was talking about her purse. She said, 'No, my plastic bag!' I said, 'Oh my God, just leave it there,'” James recalled.
A Dallas police report describes the man as a black male. Mendez and her husband believe it’s safe to add “with a scalded face” to that description.
"He thought he could scare her, and she doesn't scare," James said.
The Dallas Police Department is asking anyone with information about this incident to contact them immediately.
