As of Friday morning, 411 automobile thefts had been reported this year in the city of Bellingham, or more than 1.5 per day.
While each brings its own level of pain and inconvenience to the victims, it's likely none was more heartbreaking than what Charlene Paz experienced when her Ford Escape was stolen Saturday, Sept. 17, from the Sunset Square parking lot.
Two days later, Paz got her car back, but this story, unfortunately, does not have a happy ending.
Paz's family dog, Bentley, was in the Escape at the time it was stolen. Thursday morning, Sept. 22, Paz was informed that Bentley was struck and killed by a car in Everett.
While Paz and her family are understandably "devastated" at the loss, she told The Bellingham Herald that she also has a tremendous amount to be thankful for in the wake of the loss of Bentley and she hopes others can learn from her experience.
"There are so many things that happened along the way that we're just . . . wow," Paz said. "There are so many people that stepped up and wanted to help. This whole community cared about Bentley and what happened to him. There were so many people looking for Bentley and praying for Bentley, and to all of them, I want to say we are so thankful. I really want to thank every one of them."
'A comfort animal'
As a Shih Tsu, Bentley's impact during the approximately 13 years he was part of the Paz family far exceeded his small size.
"He was always loyal and always by your side," Paz told The Herald. "He loved getting attention and giving you comfort."
In fact, Bentley served as a comfort animal for Paz's oldest son, who has special needs, helping him with his anxiety and depression, Paz said.
On Saturday, Paz's daughter dropped off Bentley, and Paz took him with her when she went to run an errand to drop off her credit card to her youngest daughter while she was trying on clothes at the Goodwill.
Paz said she left the Escape windows down and a cup of water for Bentley and she was expecting to be in the store for only a few minutes.
'It all happened so fast'
Paz said it was a busy day at Sunset Square and remembers having to park pretty far away. Shortly after entering the store, she realized her keys were missing.
She walked back outside to her car and it was fine and safely locked, and she called her daughter, asking her to bring her extra set of keys so she could open the car.
"I remember touching the car at 2:15 (p.m.) and looking for my keys and calling my daughter and going back to Goodwill, looking to see if I dropped my keys along the way," Paz said. "By 2:20, I realized my car was gone, and by 2:23, I called 911. It all happened so fast."
Officers arrived, took a report and entered the stolen Escape into the system to watch for it, Lt. Claudia Murphy told The Herald in an email.
"I wasn't real freaked out about the car," Paz said. "I had insurance. I knew it was a major inconvenience, but it was not a big worry. But Bentley . . . I was heartbroken that someone took him."
'Bentley was nowhere to be found'
On Monday morning, Sept. 19, nearly two days after the Escape had been stolen, a manager at an apartment complex on Telegraph Road phoned police to report a car that did not belong to any tenants parked in the complex's parking lot, Murphy reported.
It was the stolen Escape.
"Officers responded and recovered the car, but Bentley was nowhere to be found," Murphy wrote.
The manager allowed officers to view surveillance video from the previous two days, and it showed the stolen Escape being dropped off minutes after it had been stolen, Murphy reported, and the woman who had been driving it was picked up by somebody else driving a van.
"It appeared by the video the dog was left in the car," Murphy wrote.
But on Sunday, Sept. 18, the same van returned, and a woman got out of carrying a pet carrier, according to Murphy. The woman then removed Bentley from the car, returned to the van and drove off.
"I was devastated when police told me they had found the car but Bentley wasn't in it," Paz said.
'An army of people'
Paz said she "blasted" Facebook right away in the hopes that somebody in the community had seen or knew something about Bentley's whereabouts.
Her initial post, which Paz has updated several times since, received nearly 800 interactions, including more than 330 shares.
Paz said she tried to keep the post positive — she wasn't trying to get the person who stole her car and took Bentley arrested.
"I just wanted her to do the right thing and return Bentley," Paz said. "I tried to be nice and have compassion for her. I just asked her to do what was best and take Bentley to the Humane Society or a fire station or somewhere where he could be left anonymously. I just wanted Bentley back."
'I was devastated'
At approximately 3 a.m. Thursday, Paz said she woke up in a sweat, as if she was having a nervous breakdown.
She struggled to go back to sleep and posted a Facebook update in the search for Bentley at about 6:30 a.m., and it was about 15 minutes later that she got a call saying Bentley, who was microchipped, had been located.
"I was so happy for 15 minutes," Paz said. "I though Bentley was OK. Then at 7:02 (a.m.), I got a call from a (veterinarian's) office in Everett — I figure they must have just opened up. They told me that at about 3 (a.m.) Bentley had been hit by a car. They took him to an animal hospital at about 4 (a.m.), but he was just hit too hard.
"I was devastated."
But Paz said she also needed to tell the community that had supported her and her family over the past two-plus days know what had happened. She made her final update to the post at approximately 7:30 a.m.
"Those people meant so much for me," Paz said. "They would have done anything to get Bentley back, and they mean so much to us."
Paz asked anyone who wanted to remember Bentley to make a donation to the Whatcom Humane Society in his name.
And she said she hopes others learn from her own experience over the past week:
— "No. 1, never leave your dog alone in the car. I didn't think it was going to be long. My daughter had already been shopping with her friends for three hours, so I thought I would be just a couple of minutes. ...
— "If you have a code to unlock your door on your car, use it. I never did, and I couldn't open the door when I lost my keys.
— "When you lose your keys and realize it, stay at your car. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that when I lost my keys, somebody else had them and that they would use them to steal my car. ...
— "If you are somebody who steals cars and you find out there is a dog or pet in the car, do the right thing and take it to the Humane Society."
Murphy asked anyone with information about who may have stolen Paz's car and Bentley to call the Bellingham Police Department's tipline at 360-778-8611 or email www.cob.org/tips.
