‘Happy birthday, you get pepper sprayed’: Petunia & Loomis manager confronted by teenaged thief

As he put it, Jesse McCauley received a brazen dose of pepper spray for his 39th birthday.

McCauley, the manager of Spokane’s “creepy” oddity and antique store Petunia & Loomis, was working on Tuesday afternoon when he watched a group of teenagers enter the store and take a quick look around. The day ended with him racing back to the store with a face full of burning tears, calling the police and closing early.

When the teenagers entered the store Tuesday, their dynamic immediately raised red flags, McCauley said during a phone interview Wednesday.

In 60 seconds, a teenage girl had walked up to a table displaying the store’s beanie caps, scanned the table, grabbed something and left. McCauley looked out the window and watched the girl put the beanie on, he said. It was then he decided to leave the store at 224 N. Howard St. and approach the girl on the corner of Howard Street and Spokane Falls Boulevard. He walked straight into a group of 10-15 teens.

“I said, ‘Can I have the beanie back?’ And this large group of kids started shouting. Then I got sprayed,” he said, adding the spray temporarily blinded him. “Two teenage boys were trying to threaten me. And I figured, the safest thing to do was to go back to my store, lock the door and call the police.”

Spokane police responded and were able to interview witnesses on the street corner, according to a news release from the department. McCauley said police were also able to obtain security footage from the area near Wheatland Bank that depicted the perpetrator spraying him in the face.

Police identified the suspect as a 16-year-old girl, the release said. She was arrested on suspicion of third-degree theft and first-degree robbery. Assaulting someone during the commission of a theft upgrades the charge to a felony.

Petunia & Loomis posted on Facebook Tuesday encouraging its customers to wish McCauley a happy birthday. Hours later, the store posted on its story, “I got pepper sprayed by some kids trying to steal some stuff… Happy birthday,” with a note the store would close early.

On Wednesday, the store returned to regular hours, and McCauley was back at work – and the beanie was returned.

“A lot of people checked on me yesterday, and we have a lot of friends at businesses around us that have come in,” McCauley said. “People brought me stuff for my birthday. Well, happy birthday, you get pepper sprayed.”