A young man was waiting in a drive-thru line for his In-N-Out Burger order when he realized a woman with a sharp stick was attacking staff inside the fast food restaurant. Instead of driving away or filming the incident, he leaped into the window to save the day.
There are so many unspeakably horrific stories in the news now, Islamic terrorism and baby murders and wars, that it is wonderful to read the good news of ordinary Americans being extraordinarily brave. Luca Opperman is only 20, but already he is as quick-thinking and courageous as an older and more experienced man. One of the people he rescued from a club-wielding harpy reportedly said he came sailing into the drive thru window “like Spider-Man” and dropped the harpy with one move.
🚨#BREAKING: A 20-year-old in California is being hailed as a HERO after fought off a CRAZED woman wielding a stick at In-N-Out employees...
— Matt Van Swol (@mattvanswol) September 4, 2026
...by DIVING out of his car and through a DRIVE-THRU WINDOW, grabbing a METAL SPATULA, and then dropping his shoulder and taking her down.… pic.twitter.com/DltPU2Ar12
Opperman was at a Lake Elsinore, Calif., In-N-Out, according to KTLA on September 4. “I just hear banging, super loud banging coming from the inside of the lobby,” Opperman recalled while speaking with KTLA’s Sandra Mitchell. “I look up and I see this lady smashing what looked like a baseball bat.”
Opperman used to do gymnastics and freestyle trampoline, so he decided to put his skills to use in this dangerous situation. He jumped through the window feet-first and landed without injury. He then grabbed a metal spatula as the closest object to hand and confronted the crazy woman, who actually had a huge stick with a sharpened end, making it potentially even more deadly than a bat.
“I’m holding the spatula, wielding my spatula and yelling at her, ‘Get out of here! Get out of here!’” Opperman said.
A Southern California man is being hailed as a hero after he confronted a violent customer who was threatening employees at an In-N-Out in Riverside County.
— KTLA (@KTLA) September 4, 2026
Details: https://t.co/JgwxkO0ryN pic.twitter.com/AEPT6R8QJR
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The woman was not willing to drop her stick. Staff fled to refuge in their back room, but Opperman was not intimidated. “That’s when you see me go in with the shoulder drop,” he explained. “I checked her. I grabbed the stick. This was a stick the size of a baseball bat, and the other end was snapped off, so it had a thick sharp end and edges.”
One witness said the whole harrowing experience began when the wacko decided her order wasn’t coming fast enough and the solution was to threaten employees with a stick. But after Opperman got her stick, the violence ended. Police subsequently arrested her.
Opperman, who is in college, told KTLA he wasn’t afraid. He was thinking of other people. “If I didn’t step in right there and then, I knew that somebody would have gotten hurt,” he emphasized. And that is what makes him really like a superhero — not that he can jump through windows, but that his first thought was to risk himself in order to protect others.
Editor's Note: President Trump is fighting to renew America in this 250th birthday year.
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