Telltale scent of pizza leads K9 officer to 3 robbery suspects

An Olympia police K9 followed the scent of pizza Thursday night to find three teens suspected of robbing a pizza delivery woman.

Two adult suspects — Tristan Goldsby, 18, and Caleb Winegarner, 19 — were booked into the Thurston County jail. Superior Court Judge James Dixon on Friday set bail at $100,000 for each suspect.

The third suspect, a 16-year-old male, was booked into the Thurston County Juvenile Detention Facility. A judge set bail at $90,000 for him.

All three suspects will likely face charges of first-degree robbery.

The suspects allegedly devised a plan to get pizza, and ordered food to be delivered to a false address, said Lt. Paul Lower of the Olympia Police Department. The delivery woman tried to deliver pizza to an apartment on the 2300 block of Ninth Avenue Southwest at about 9:40 p.m., but no one answered the door.

She reported that the teens then jumped out of the bushes, and that one of them was holding a gun. She said they ordered her to drop the pizza.

She said the suspects picked up the pizza and ran away.

K9 Kaiser and his handler, Officer Bill Smith, arrived at the scene, and Kaiser was able to follow the scent of the pizza down the road to where one of the suspects was hiding in the bushes, Lower said.

As officers arrested the suspect, he pointed out the two other suspects in a van.

The suspects reported that they threw the gun in the bushes — and that it was only an airsoft gun, Lower said.

Deputy Prosecutor Megan Winder said Friday that the gun hadn’t yet been found. She said that whether the gun was an airsoft gun or not, the victim believed she was being threatened with a real gun.

Winegarner reportedly said they robbed the woman because they were “bored and hungry,” according to court documents.

Dixon said Friday that the allegations in the case are serious.

“Those actions are the actions of people who are dangerous to this community,” Dixon said.

This story was originally published December 30, 2016 at 5:55 PM with the headline "Telltale scent of pizza leads K9 officer to 3 robbery suspects."