Until earlier this week, Tihisha Jones was just a single mom from the Bronx, New York, working hard to look after her five-year-old son.
Now, she has online fans who call her "Supermom," after a bystander filmed the dramatic moment when she fought off a pair of car thieves.
Jones was just about to drive her son to school on Tuesday when she spotted a man sitting in the driver seat of her car, which she nicknamed "Black Beauty."
Bronx mom speaks out after stopping and detaining would be car thief. Video of incident via @KMackBrand pic.twitter.com/seSuG2NoYw
— Marcus Solis (@MarcusSolis7) December 18, 2018
The NYPD says the man was trying to steal her car, and when Jones say him she "went into rage."
Although Jones suffers from a heart condition, and normally uses a walker to get around, she said her "adrenaline kicked in" as she fought off the thief single-handedly.
"I came to the [passenger] side to get him out this way, but I couldn't get him out this way - he pulled the door to close it on me," Jones described.
"I jumped across the car, open [the driver's] door and I pull him out. And then after that, I couldn't tell you what happened. I just had to do what I had to do."
What bystander Katie Mack's video shows is that Jones pinned the suspect to the ground until police arrive to arrest him.
"He tried to get away," Jones said, "he tried to take off his shirt and that's when I sat down on him."
After watching the video hours after the incident, Jones says she was so angry she doesn't even remember most of the intense confrontation.
"He's lucky I didn't kill him."
Video of the dramatic takedown has already been watched almost 50,000 times online, and most viewers have nothing but praise for Jones.
In an interview with local news station WABC, Jones said she's fed up with crime and theft, especially after the Black Beauty was vandalized and had a window broken in a separate incident just in the last week.
"I don't think this is fair that people work hard for their things, for somebody to just take your things away," she said.
Jones also revealed that she relies on her car to get to her medical appointments, so losing it would have been a major setback.
The 19-year-old suspect Jones caught in the act has been charged with grand larceny and other crimes, and police say he was "highly intoxicated" when they arrived on the scene.
