The moment two brazen women were caught red-handed trying to steal a beach canopy - then ATTACKED the bemused owner as he politely asked them to stop

Two women casually, though clumsily, trying to steal another beachgoer's canopy on a Florida beach were caught red-handed on July 4 by the owner.



The bumbling thieves may find it difficult to commit any more thefts since video the canopy's owner took of the bizarre confrontation has gone viral.



As Americans celebrated their freedom on the holiday, the two middle-aged women, dressed in swimwear, took their liberty a little too far at New Smyrna beach.

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Red-handed: A beachgoer, camera in hand, approached two women who are trying to dismantle his beach canopy

Shameless: Unaware he is the owner of the canopy, the women ask the man if they can help him to dismantle the canopy

Pretense: When he tells them that the canopy belongs to him, they claim that other items nearby belong to them. They don't, says the man, because they're also his

The video begins as a beachgoer approaches the two women and politely asks them if the beach canopy they are trying to dismantle belongs to them.



'Yeah, but we don't know how to do it,' one of the women tells him.



'Oh, do you need some help?' he says.



'Do you know how to do it?'



'Yeah,' he tells them. 'This is our stuff.'



The women feign disbelief, trying to pretend that the canopy, beach chairs and boogie boards strewn on the sand are their property.



'No,' he says. 'It is. It's all ours. All of it. The chairs, the bag - this is all our stuff.



One of the women points to a beach toy questioningly.



'My kid's, yup,' says the man.



The man is unfailingly polite, telling them that he'll let it slide and that he's glad he arrived back in time before his stuff went missing.



The women continue to act as though they truly believe the items belong to them.



When their ruse fails to sway the man, though, they become aggressive, telling him to 'turn the goddamn camera off.'



The man responds in kind, telling them to 'step away from my sh*t.'



The video ends as one of the women is telling the man to stop recording and approaching him aggressively.

He laughs, but then says, 'Seriously?'







Lashing out: The women refuse to admit the items aren't theirs and suddenly turn aggressive, telling the man to turn his 'goddamn camera off'

Gawker spoke to the man, who wanted to be identified only as Rich, who said he was amazed by the women's reaction.

'If I were to judge a book by its cover, theft would not have been my first thought,' Rich said of the two women.

'I honestly thought they were being neighborly because NSB is Mayberry on the beach.'

He and his family had left their beach canopy and chairs set up while their took their young sons back to their accommodation to have a nap.

Rich returned about an hour and a half later to check that Beach Patrol hadn't picked up their things.

'I've been to New Smyrna Beach a thousand times and felt it was safe enough to do so,' he told Gawker.

Confrontation: After one of the women threatens to bury the man's camera phone and begins approaching him angrily, the video ends

He began filming when he spotted the women, who had already collapsed his chairs and placed them in his beach cart and were beginning work on the canopy.

He said that after one of the women told him she as going to bury his phone in the grass (of which there was little on the beach), she lunged for his phone and it stopped recording.

Which is unfortunate for us, because that's when things got even more ridiculous, Rich said.

'I continued to back up as we went around the canopy frame. In the most bizarre moment she gnashed her teeth, lunging at me with an open palm and said, "I'll grab your d**k!" I appreciated the offer but didn't feel the chemistry was there,' Rich told Gawker.

The two women eventually scurried off saying they needed to call 'Pat.'

An incredulous Rich sent the video, which he felt needed no explanation, to his wife, who was immediately concerned for his safety, considering it ended as one of the women advanced on him.

She called the police and drove to the beach with Rich's sister and niece.