Two women, dog, pepper-sprayed outside Ballard Goodwill

SEATTLE — Emily Altobelli and her friend, Melissa Thompson, were waiting to turn into the Goodwill store in Ballard to donate clothes last Friday just after noon.

The women said they were pulled over with their hazard lights on Northwest 62nd Street and 8th Avenue Northwest when a white SUV squealed its tires and passed them, and two men flipped them off.

“They were upset we were stopped, so they zoomed around us, screeched their tires, flipped us off. And we were, like, ‘That was super aggressive,’” remembered Altobelli.

A minute later, they said the men were back. This time, they pepper-sprayed into Altobelli’s car. All of the car windows were down, and the pepper spray hit Altobelli in the face, as well as her dog. It just missed hitting Thompson in the face. The pepper spray was in a green squirt gun.

“It got in my eyes. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t breathe. It was in my mouth,” said Altobelli. Thompson jumped in the driver seat and hurried to her house. Altobelli’s eyes swelled shut. Her dog, Luna, was in distress. They rushed her to an emergency vet to get her eyes washed out.

Altobelli and her dog are OK.

The women filed a police report with the Seattle Police Department. The friends also tracked down videos from a business nearby and a home with a Ring camera. Based on the video, they think the suspects' vehicle is a 2018 or 2019 white GMC Acadia Denali.

The women know there were witnesses but couldn’t stick around to get their contact information. Altobelli posted about the incident on Reddit and Facebook and plans to talk about it on her podcast, The Bitterfly Podcast (@thebitterflypodcast). They hope anyone who saw the incident or recognizes the SUV will call police.

They are upset the incident happened in Ballard, an area both women call home. They also think it is likely the men live nearby and were already frustrated that cars line up near the Goodwill store.

Thompson is concerned the men could do it again. “The fact that they have a squirt gun — I feel they’ve done this before and wanting to do it again,” said Thompson.

Cox Media Group