A pregnant store owner in the Chinatown neighborhood of Oakland, California, used an air horn to chase away a suspected thief and alert a local volunteer security team in late April, local media reported.

Security footage from inside the store shows Eva Liu working at her desk in Yuda International Logistics, the business she owns with her husband, when a man walks in and grabs at something on a shelf. Liu jumps up and says “sorry, sorry, sorry” as she tries to stop the man approaching her. The mans turns back, grabs an object from a shelf and walks out the door. As Liu follows him out, he hurls an object at Liu, barely missing her stomach.

According to ABC7 News, the object was a bottle of hand sanitizer. The air horn she used was one of many distributed to members of the community in February 2021 by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce amid a spike in racially-motivated attacks on Asian-Americans, ABC7 reported. The volunteer security team who responded to the horn – called the Blue Angels – alerted police who arrived in under two minutes, the report said.

Liu, speaking through a translator, told ABC7 that as the man was leaving, he called her a "Chinese b****. Credit: Canming Mai via Storyful

Video transcript

EVA LIU: Hello, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

- [INAUDIBLE].

[SCREAMS]

[AIR HORN SOUNDS]