Geordie’s Joint has been sating thirsty Woodhaven denizens for six years. 

And ever since the first pint was served in the quiet neighborhood in New York City’s Queens borough, the owners have proudly hung an American flag waving above the pub’s facade. But a rogue rolling on the sidewalk on a bicycle ended the patriotic tradition by striking back at the Stars and Stripes. 

“I never seen anybody desecrate an American flag like that; and I was angry,” said Geordie’s owner Pat Robinson in an interview with the Sun. 

The bearded belligerent was captured on CCTV at around 1 p.m. on Jan. 13 rolling by the establishment. He then hops off his bike and with a knife in his right hand — gripes (allegedly in Spanish) toward the sky. He then leaps upward to get his hands on the American flag to yank it down. 

Then, he can be seen using his blade to tear up several of the 13 red and white stripes at the seams. The stripes symbolize the 13 original colonies. 

He’s seen pedaling off. A man clad in pixelated fatigues strolls by, cranes his neck a couple times at the American symbol’s crestfallen state. Ms. Robinson noted how she was waylaid from the business that day, tending to her ailing husband who had suffered a stroke. She would return to stomach the flagrant act.

“You know, you hear about these things on the news, but when you see them, and the fact is, he was carrying a knife; that’s illegal, too,” she tells the Sun.

She then pulled footage from security camera storage and asked herself, ‘Who did this?’ and ‘What happened here?’

The motive in her eyes wasn’t cryptic.

“When I watched it, it was so violent,” she said. “It was as if he hated it.” 

The suspect, who Robinson said didn’t patronize the pub, remains at large.  But the owner confirmed that when she filed a report at the local precinct, investigators there told her “we know him” from previous transgressions in the neighborhood. 

Workers at a deli across the street informed Ms. Robinson that the goon was indeed yelling in Spanish while doing his worst with the blade. And she said the ruined flag was already offered to the local Knights of Columbus chapter to be part of their flag retirement ceremony.

“It must be burned,” she said. “That’s the rules for an American flag.” 

On the plus side, she already has assurances from the American Legion that a replacement flag is on its way to tower proudly over Geordie’s once again. 

“He’s not gonna turn me from putting an American flag up on an American business,” she said. “It was somebody who was angry at America, and they didn’t like my American flag. But it’s not my American flag. It’s the people’s American flag, you know?”