A video going viral again shows a restaurant owner charging after a man who punched and robbed an older diner in Hollywood, California — but the dramatic takedown actually happened in August 2022.
The surveillance footage begins with the diner sitting outside when a man suddenly walks up and punches him, knocking him from his chair. Within seconds, the attacker is running away with the man’s wallet and cellphone.
What happens next is why the four-year-old footage has found another audience. Tim Ratcliff, who owned a neighboring restaurant, saw the attack unfold, abandoned what he was doing and took off after the fleeing man.
The chase spilled toward the busy intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea Avenue. Ratcliff caught up, survived a punch thrown in his direction and tackled the man into the street.
Other people then joined the effort. Ratcliff’s girlfriend and another woman recovered the stolen property while Ratcliff stayed on top of the struggling man and refused to let him escape.
He Went After Him
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Ratcliff told ABC7 Los Angeles that he had just stepped outside when he witnessed the punch.
“I set the drink down on my table and I literally turned and watched as it happened,” Ratcliff said.
Ratcliff owned Shin, a restaurant near the site of the attack. He said there wasn’t much calculation behind his decision to pursue the man.
“Honestly, I didn’t even think about it, it was just instinct,” he told ABC7.
The attacker had taken the victim’s wallet and phone before running. Ratcliff followed him around the corner, where the man struck Ratcliff as well.
Ratcliff responded by tackling him.
The confrontation moved partly into the roadway, but Ratcliff maintained control while his girlfriend helped recover the victim’s property.
Ten Long Minutes
The struggle did not end with the tackle.
Ratcliff said he held the man down for nearly 10 minutes while waiting for Los Angeles police to arrive. The man repeatedly asked to be released, according to Ratcliff, but he refused.
Contemporary Fox News coverage credited the surveillance footage to Hollywood Shin, giving the video a traceable source years before its latest round of social-media reposts.
Ratcliff’s girlfriend and another bystander also helped gather belongings and cash from the ground while the man continued struggling.
Police eventually arrived and took him into custody.
The Man He Helped
The diner was later identified as Richard Schlesinger.
In an interview with FOX 11 Los Angeles, Schlesinger said he had finished eating and was paying when he was hit.
The punch knocked him from his seat and onto the pavement. He suffered two cracked ribs in the fall.
Schlesinger said he began yelling for help after the attacker took his wallet.
Ratcliff was already moving.
“When it happened and I saw Richard get hit, it was instinctive of just getting up and going after the guy,” Ratcliff told the station.
The two men later met again and went together to a courthouse in downtown Los Angeles in hopes of seeing the criminal case proceed.
An Odd Aftermath
That visit produced another wrinkle.
Schlesinger and Ratcliff told Inside Edition that they waited for an expected court appearance but were ultimately told the suspect could not be located within the Los Angeles custody system at the time.
Ratcliff had also encountered the man before the attack. He said the man had been coming around the neighborhood for roughly two months and that his restaurant had previously provided him with food and water.
That characterization came from Ratcliff; available reporting does not independently establish the man’s housing status.
The security footage, meanwhile, had already spread widely in 2022. Fox’s original report identified Hollywood Shin as the source of the video, years before newer accounts began circulating copies of the confrontation again.
Ratcliff said afterward that he did not regret chasing the man.
“I’m glad I got him,” he told ABC7.