On the morning of 27 May 2002, Sapunova was driving along a road about 32 km (20 mi) southwest of Moscow, with her 4-year-old daughter and 55-year-old mother Yelena as passengers, when she spotted a sign near the roadside bearing a slogan variously translated as "Death to Yids", or "Death to the Kikes". The sign had in fact been there for at least a day, but no-one had taken it down. Tatyana was greatly offended by it, stopped her car, and got out to take the sign down. However, it was booby-trapped, and when she pulled on the sign, it set off a bomb, resulting in severe wounds to her legs, hands, and face. She was left with burns and lost sight in one eye.
Sapunova was treated in a hospital in Russia, where she was visited by Rabbi Berel Lazar, one of Russia's two chief rabbis, and the man for whom a Russian security source has claimed was the intended victim. Lazar arranged for her to be flown to Israel for further treatment, for which various Jewish organisations offered to provide money. In Israel, Sapunova received further treatment for burns and eye damage.
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