Photo: Dat Nguyen
32 year-old southeast Portland resident Scott Nowicki claims he was assaulted, when an employee of the Bike n Hike store on SE Grand refused to warranty a pair of rain pants. Here’s Nowicki’s story:
“I was just attacked by a shop employee at the Bike and Hike on Grand…I was attempting to warranty a pair of Endura waterproof pants that didn’t turn out to be very waterproof…Since I only wore them twice, they look fine on the outside. The employee Paul (he told me he was the manager) decided that I was asking too much of a pair of pants and wouldn’t warranty them. I of course, started to get irate that I spent $130 on a pair of pants that don’t do what a $20 pair does. Since I obviously wanted something he wasn’t about to give me, he decided to end the discussion.
Within 30 seconds it went from “You’re going to have to leave” to assault. He called for help, rushed me, hit me, then thought better of it, and then pushed and wrestled me to the door. So I called the cops, and am considering what to do next.”
When I followed up with Nowicki about the story, he said all he wanted was a “simple solution” to his problem but that “the guy was unreasonable and didn’t even try” to come up with one. Nowicki did say that this was the third pair of pants he had tried from the store. Nowicki alleges that when he asked to speak with the store owner (2007 Alice Award Winner Kevin Chudy), he says the store manager refused.
According to Nowicki, when it became clear he was not satisfied with the manager’s decision to not take back the pants, the manager became flustered.
“We were still arguing and I said, no, I won’t leave. I wanted to talk to the owner and asked the manager for a phone book. He said “we don’t have one”…but I saw it right next to him. Then he was on me…first he tried to grab my bag then he went for me and proceeded to fight and wrestle me out of the store.”
After the incident, Nowicki called the police and filed a report.
At this time, Nowicki is considering his next move,
“I don’t know…I mean, it’s a $130 pair of pants. I realize that’s an insignificant amount of money and it doesn’t seem reasonable to spend time and energy to take it to court. But I also feel like it’s not right to be physically assaulted by the store
ownermanager and have nothing come of it.”
Nowicki says he sustained no injuries from the incident.
store on Grand Ave.
File photo: 1/23/07
The story from Bike n Hike differs from Nowicki’s. I talked with store owner Kevin Chudy about the incident. Chudy says this is “an unfortunate situation” and that he stands by the statements he made in the police report, which claim that Nowicki has a “distorted view of what actually happened”.
The store stands behind its employee and claims that Nowicki was belligerent and that he threw the rain pants at the store manager and made threats. Since they have a zero tolerance policy on threats, they asked Nowicki to leave. When Nowicki didn’t leave, the manager removed him from the store.
Chudy was in the store at the time of the alleged assault but he did not see or hear the incident. So far there are no witnesses.
Bike n Hike has contacted their lawyer and I’m awaiting for a statement from them. I also hope to see the police report which should be available soon.
This incident is also being discussed on the Zoobomb Forum and on the Shift list.