The incident took place after 3 p.m. on Thursday in Bay Ridge on Third Avenue between 80th and 81st Streets. The woman in question, who police are declining to identify, was apparently a regular on the strip known for muttering to herself but had never been known to do anything like this.  Apparently what set her off was seeing something that said “Free” (possibly “free delivery”) in the window of Dragon China between 79th and 80th Street

The more news article-esque story with eyewitness accounts at The Brooklyn Paper:

Zhao said that the cashier explained that not everything was free — but that only enraged the woman, who slammed her fingers down on the menu, screaming, “Free, free, free, free!”

The disturned woman then started throwing everything in the store she could get her hands on, including a watermelon at a nearby business owner that had come to check out commotion.  She ran outside, stripped off everything, jumped on a convertible in the middle of an intersection, and spread eagle on it.  Then she ran back into the Chinese place, used money from the register to start a fire on top of the stove, and starting throwing bottles.  Fireman secured the blaze and NYPD was eventually able to subdue her.

Some of the commenters on the original posts are criticizing the coverage as exploitative, because the woman was clearly mentally ill.  But you can’t not talk about something this cinematic. And that smile on her face as she disrupts an intersection’s traffic is truly inspiring.

At that moment, she looks like the happiest human being alive.