VANCOUVER, Wash. — A Vancouver man is in the hospital with serious head injuries he sustained while trying to stop somebody from stealing his car this week. A suspect in the theft and hit-and-run was later arrested near Seattle.
"I wouldn't wish this on anybody," Tim Meyerhoff said.
Meyeroff still cannot believe what happened to his nephew, Joey Lutz, early Tuesday morning.
"What I understand happened is he came out and started his vehicle," he continued.
After starting his car that morning, Meyerhoff said that Lutz ran back into his house near Northeast 40th Avenue and Northeast 47th Street in Vancouver. Lutz went back outside moments later and saw somebody taking off in his red 2010 Toyota Camry.
"He ran through the arbor vitae bushes and the driver hit him and kept going," Meyerhoff said.
Lutz was hit hard and landed on his head, according to Meyerhoff. A family member heard the commotion and ran outside to find Lutz in bad shape.
"He was unconscious and bleeding severely from the head," Meyerhoff said. "Another neighbor lady stopped to help. He started vomiting and they had to roll him onto his side and they had to take care of him until the medics got here."
"This is stuff you hear about but don't expect to happen to your family," Lisa Elliott added.
Elliott is a cousin. She rushed to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center after the crash. That is where Lutz underwent emergency surgery Tuesday.
"He's doing okay," Elliott said. "It sounds like he's progressing at the rate he's supposed to — but with brain surgery you don't know what the outcome will be."
As family focuses on Lutz's recovery, they asked the public to keep an eye out for Lutz's car.
"He actually got clipped by the car so there should be some damage on the front, front end of the car," Elliott said.
"You want justice," Meyerhoff said. "It's that simple."
On Sunday, the Clark County Sheriff's Office announced that detectives had been contacted by police in Auburn, Wash., near Seattle. The other agency said that it had located and recovered a stolen red 2010 Toyota Camry sedan.
Auburn police officers arrested a man for possession of a stolen vehicle, identified as Ttong John of Vancouver. John was booked into the King County Jail.
Sheriff's office detectives later interviewed John, developing probable cause to arrest him for first-degree robbery and injury hit-and-run, connecting him to the incident that left Lutz severely injured. A warrant was issued, and CCSO said that it planned to extradite John to Clark County.
"The Clark County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank members of the Auburn Police Department for their assistance with the investigation and are appreciative of our statewide law enforcement partnerships," the agency said in a brief statement.
Family said that Lutz is uninsured. They have started a GoFundMe to help with medical expenses.