“He asks me if I was sure maybe two, three times.”
A Las Vegas woman went to a tire shop for help and says she ended up being pressured by the owner into settling the tab via “body payment.” Here’s what she did next.
TiKTok user Lissette (@lissettebridge), a Las Vegas-based dog groomer, posted about the incident in a video on September 16. “I’m making this video just to make [expletive] clear and let everybody know what took place on Sept. 11,” she says.
Lissette explains that she was experiencing car problems and had no choice but to visit the nearest mechanic to her home. The first two mechanics who greeted her were polite and professional, she says.
She says that took a turn when she met the owner of the shop, who she identifies as Manuel Ramos of Manny’s Tire Shop. At first, the interaction went normally, she says. The mechanic inspected her tire and determined that she needed a replacement. Ramos quoted her $300, and Lissette says she agreed.
Here’s where she says it started getting weird. “He asks me if I was sure maybe two, three times. I said ‘That’s fine,’” she says. “He said, ‘We can try and make it a little cheaper and get you a used tire.’ I told him, ‘Whatever the price is, I got it.’”
According to Lissette, Ramos then invited her into his office so that she could pay and get her receipt. On the way, she asked him if she could use Apple Pay to complete the transaction.
She says, “That’s when he proceeds to tell me—all this happened in Spanish, mind you—’I take cash, CashApp, Venmo, Apple Pay, cuerpo.’ Cuerpo meaning body—as in a body payment.”
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Lissette was immediately incensed. She recalls asking, “‘Do I look like a prostitute? Do I look like I don’t have money to pay this?’ That’s when he goes, ‘Oh, you don’t do that?’”
Lissette says this was the final in a series of odd comments Ramos made to her throughout the exchange. She says Ramos eventually left, and she spoke to his son, who also works at the shop, and apparently acknowledged prior complaints about his father’s behavior.
Ramos denies any wrongdoing. In his telling, the incident boils down to a miscommunication.
Reached by phone, Ramos told Motor1, “That’s not what happened.” He acknowledged that he commented on Lissette’s profession, but denied that what he said had a sexual connotation.
“I don’t go to get my hair done, my beard done, my nails done even once a month, because I’m too busy,” he added about something he said to the dog groomer. “And those dog owners they take them like three or four times a month. That’s why I said, ‘What a lucky dog.'”
Ramos insists his statement was not intended to be flirtatious at all, and he left the shop shortly after he realized he offended Lissette. “I really apologize, that’s not what I mean,” he recalled saying. And he categorically denies that he offered her any illicit payment methods. “No, never,” he said.
In the comments section, viewers overwhelmingly took Lissette’s side. Many thanked her for naming the shop and praised her for going to the authorities.
“As a Las Vegas resident, I do appreciate this information,” wrote one viewer.
“Literally never OK,” wrote a second person. “I just hate that Las Vegas has normalized that because I’ve been to open late shops like that and the guy mentioned that he gets a lot of women who pay ‘that way.’”
“So glad you’re speaking up for yourself and for the other women who are afraid to,” said another person. “Sorry that happened to you.”
As the video ends, Lissette says she went to the police and filed a report about what happened. Motor1 was unable to attain the report prior to publication.
For the people in the comments skeptical of her story or who say she is responsible, she says, “All you people sound ignorant and I hope God lays clarity on you.”
Motor1 contacted Lissette via TikTok comment and direct messages for comment. We’ll update this if she responds.
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