Sleeping Chihuahua proves key evidence in Pierce County burglary, investigators say

A sleeping Chihuahua was a key piece of evidence in a Frederickson burglary investigation, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said Monday.

The agency gave this account of the canine caper on its Facebook page:

Deputies responded to 911 calls shortly before 5:30 a.m. Sunday about a man holding two women at gunpoint near Canyon Road East and Military Road.

Callers said the man had one of the women in a headlock and was yelling that they had robbed his house.

“... dispatchers could hear a crowd of people yelling at them to stop hitting each other,” the agency wrote.

The deputies arrived to find several bystanders trying to separate the man and the women.

The man told deputies he had a handgun and allowed himself to be disarmed while the women were handcuffed.

He said he heard the women in his house while he was sleeping and had grabbed his gun and chased them out of the home.

The women said they had been looking for a lost Chihuahua when the man ran up to them for no reason and accused them of robbing him.

They said they hadn’t been able to find the missing dog, but a patrol sergeant saw a sleeping Chihuahua in the backseat of the women’s vehicle.

The women said they only owned one dog, but when asked about the sleeping pup, alternately said they didn’t know how the dog got into the car and that they had two Chihuahuas.

Deputies booked the women into jail on suspicion of residential burglary, and the Chihuahua was placed into the care of Animal Control.

This story was originally published October 22, 2018 at 3:53 PM.