VANCOUVER, Wash. — Investigators with the Clark County Sheriff's Office are searching for an armed robber accused of entering a Vancouver home and stealing a vehicle. The couple said one of their dogs stepped up to protect them.
On May 11 around 5:30 a.m., Doug and Teresa Wyckoff let their dogs, Ruby and Ginger, outside in their backyard near Northeast 162nd Avenue and Northeast 20th Street. It was a nice morning, so they left their sliding back door open for about 15 minutes. Suddenly, they said a stranger holding a gun walked inside.
"He pointed his gun at me and said, 'I will shoot you,' and then just kept moving," Doug Wyckoff said.
At that moment, the Wyckoffs said one of their dogs, Ginger, sprang up to help.
"She just went for it and barked at him in a way that I hadn't heard before," Teresa Wyckoff said. "I got up, thinking it was a delivery guy."
Doug Wyckoff recalled what happened next.
"She's like, 'What's going on?' And I'm like, 'Get back in the bedroom; there's a man in the house with a gun. Put the dogs in there with you,' and I said, 'Call 911,'" he said.
The couple credits Ginger for keeping them safe.
"She's our hero. She saved our lives," Teresa Wyckoff said.
The man stole her purse and keys before stealing her Honda CRV, investigators said. Within three minutes, Vancouver police and Clark County sheriff's deputies arrived, but the armed robber had already left. Police chased after him, but stopped their pursuit near the Vancouver Mall, when deputies said the car was out of sight.
That night, police recovered the stolen car, which had been ditched in Longview. Teresa Wyckoff said she had found the car's location after calling the dealership she bought the car from.
"They said that they sold me an extra service to track it, which I don't remember, but I'm glad I did the upsale! They tracked it within 30 seconds," she said.
Police said the suspect who stole the car is still out there. The Wyckoffs described the man as 6-foot-1, with broad shoulders and about 180 pounds. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt with the hood up, and a face mask with white print on it.
"It would be nice to have some sort of justice," Teresa Wyckoff said. "Not for our stuff, but for the fact that I don't want anyone else to feel like that."
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Clark County Sheriff's Office.