'Tough Mother' Columbia Sportswear Chair, 85 or 86, Foils Robbery & Defends Brand
Met by an armed robber with a gift basket when she arrived at her suburban Portland, Ore., home on Wednesday, the 85- or 86-year-old chairman of Columbia Sportswear lived up to her biography billing as One Tough Mother.
Known for national ads years ago putting her son and the company’s outdoor products through extreme tests as she flexes biceps bearing the slogan “Born to Nag,” Gert Boyle told the man she had to disarm her home security system after he pulled a gun on her. But instead she set off a silent alarm, according to the Associated Press and the Oregonian.
Although the man fled into a backyard ravine as police arrived and spotted Boyle with her hands bound, a suspect was arrested, scratched and limping, about six hours later. His identity hasn’t yet been confirmed.
A bruised Boyle took a rare day off from Columbia yesterday. But she wasn’t too daunted, in the meantime, to defend the brand, says Sgt. Neil Hennelly of the West Linn police department.
When the police chief arrived to update Boyle on the case, “he mistakenly wore a North Face jacket, and he asked her how she was doing,” the sergeant notes. “She said she was doing fine until that jacket walked through the door.”
