Manicure Mayhem: Salon Employee Jumped on Customer's Car as She Drove Away, Video Shows

It was manicure mayhem Saturday as an unsatisfied customer drove off with a nail salon employee on the hood of her car in Valparaiso.

Jimmy Nguyen says he landed on top of the car trying to prevent the woman from leaving without paying.

"She’s crazy but I’ve got to do the right thing," he said. "I said 'stop, don’t drive' and she didn’t care, she kept driving and pushed me from here to there."

Surveillance cameras caught the chaos at Diamond Nails and Spa over the weekend.

Police arrested 28-year-old Charley Fowler and charged her with criminal recklessness and theft.

Her attorney, Jesse Harper, says this video doesn’t tell the entire story.

"If someone says they’re going to mow your lawn for $30, then they mow half your lawn and tear up your rose bushes, you’re not going to pay them the $30," Harper said.

Video from a camera inside the salon shows Fowler and employees in a discussion before she walks out and is followed.

Nguyen says he just reacted.

"It’s not worth my life, but I’m a single daddy, I take care of two kids at home on one income--I have to work," he said.

Employees say when Fowler complained they offered to have another tech redo the manicure but she told them she didn’t have time.

Both sides agree on one thing: $30 isn’t the main issue.

"It’s the principal of the situation," Harper said. "I do not think Ms. Fowler should have been arrested, I do not think those employees should have jumped on her car," Harper said.

But Nguyen said he believes he did the right thing.

"Even if it was three pennies, I’d do it again--I don’t care," he said. "I’d do the right thing, I don’t do the wrong thing."