‘As soon as I heard that dog, I gave up’: Pierce deputy with convincing bark gets kids to surrender

LAKEWOOD, Wash. — A Pierce County deputy used a creative tactic to get four underage suspects to come out of hiding.

Body camera footage shows deputies working to catch a group of kids who were believed to have been driving a stolen car.

On Aug. 18 at around 8:30 a.m., deputies in University Place were responding to a report of a stolen car at a cemetery on Chambers Creek Way in Tacoma.

As a sergeant was getting close, officers from Lakewood and Steilacoom reported that the stolen car was leaving the area.

The University Place sergeant was able to pull over, put out stop sticks and wait for the stolen car. Though the spikes did their job, even four flat tires didn’t stop the driver.

Officers later spotted the car, still running but with no one inside, in the 7500 block of Bridgeport Way in Lakewood.

Deputies surrounded the area and began to check a wooded area for the suspects. One deputy could see two of the four kids down in a creek bed.

Hoping to get them to come out of hiding, he tried something different.

“Don’t make us release our K-9,” he shouted, though there was no police dog at the scene. The deputy followed his command with some convincing barking that sounded as if it was coming from an angry dog.

While branches were heard breaking as the suspects moved, the deputy let loose with another round of barking, followed by, “Better stop!”

Shortly after, all four kids emerged from the wooded area and were taken into custody.

“The best part about this whole thing is that the kids actually believed there was a dog, and in the end, they told the deputies, ‘Man, as soon as I heard that dog, I gave up.’ So awesome job, and A-plus for creativity and figuring out a way to get these kids to comply,” Pierce County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Darren Moss said in a Facebook video.

Watch the entire video on PCSD’s Facebook page.

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