Wichita visitors had truck, guns and a dog named Shadow stolen

This could have been one of the worst Christmases of Gary Miller’s and Bonnie Goldman’s lives. Thieves stole their truck, guns, booze and dog.

But because of 13 Wichita police officers, Miller said, they got Shadow the dog back.

And their truck, their guns, their booze and their peace of mind.

“We’re very grateful to your police up there,” Miller said in a telephone interview from Texas.

The couple lives in Wisconsin and moves to Texas for the winter. They stayed at a Days Inn in south Wichita on Monday night, in the 4800 block of South Laura.

On Tuesday morning, thieves stole their Ford F-150 super cab, which contained literally a truckload of thousands of dollars in personal property: three months’ worth of dog food for Shadow, clothes for themselves, Miller’s passport, a freezer packed with food, a television, their handguns and rifles, and a half a gallon of booze.

And Shadow, their 90-pound German shepherd.

“It made my heart drop when I saw the truck gone,” said Miller, a 76-year-old retired master electrician.

“Your whole life and your dog is sitting in that truck.”

Headed to Texas

“So me and my lady, Bonnie, are headed from Wisconsin to Texas, where she has a home,” Miller said.

“I’m a snow bird, and I’m taking a truck packed to the hilt. I’ve got tools, a Char-Broil grill attached and tied down, I’ve got all this stuff to live on for three months.

“We spend the night in Wichita, and I get up at 5 a.m.

“I took the dog on a potty run.

“He’s got a bed in the back half of the super cab. I started the truck to warm it up, let the dog into the truck and went in to get my lady.

“I could have locked the truck with my remote key but didn’t.

“Five minutes later, we walk out, and the truck’s gone.”

A white van

Police had little to go on.

“But this is an example of what happens when experienced officers work smart and use their knowledge,” said Officer Paul Cruz, a police spokesman.

They found surveillance footage from the Day’s Inn parking lot that showed a white van pulling in at about the time of the theft.

One of the responding officers, Mike Berry, remembered that several days before, he had put an impound sticker on what looked like an abandoned white van in the same area.

He suggested there might be a connection and that the information he’d recorded for the impound sticker might be useful.

He was right.

Commanders at the Patrol South substation flooded the neighborhood with officers: besides Berry, they sent 12 more: Josh Hayes, Naomi Arnold, Seth Creighton, Jeanette Griggs, Brian Arterburn, Kevin McKenna, Robert Kemp, David Howard, Seth Doshier, Aaron Gillispie, John Groh and Sgt. Shane Preble.

They drove up and down streets through the neighborhood – and saw a white van in the 1900 block of East 54th Street South, Cruz said.

The van had been stolen; it was the same van that Berry had put the sticker on days before.

The officers found three people in it, Cruz said: a woman, 28, and two men, 36 and 41.

Officers then thought the suspected thieves must have abandoned the truck nearby.

So they drove around the neighborhood some more.

And they found the truck.

With Shadow inside.

Prayers for good news

By that time, Miller and Goldman, shocked and discouraged, were back on their way to Texas.

They had rented a car and headed south, with Goldman, a devout Baptist, praying all the way that the police would have some luck.

And then their cellphone rang.

“We were 50 miles south of Oklahoma City by then,” Miller said. “The officer on the phone said, ‘We’ve found your truck, with the dog in it.’ Well, when Bonnie heard that, she was jumping around real excited.

“We turned around and drove back to Wichita. We met an officer at a QuikTrip, and he took us to where they had a whole bunch of our stuff. And other stuff they’d found, that wasn’t ours.”

“The police couldn’t have been nicer or more professional,” Miller said. “They’d even taken Shadow and fed him up and gave him water. He was one happy camper of a dog, I’ll tell you.”

They got nearly all their property back, except one Derringer, some clothes, a camera and some hand tools.

“I’ve got friends in the FBI and the Treasury Department, and the way these guys worked in Wichita was as good as any work I’ve heard of,” Miller said.

The three people suspected in the theft were booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on Tuesday, Cruz said.

The case was presented to the Sedgwick County District Attorney, he said. At least one of the suspects will face charges of felony theft over $25,000 and possession of stolen property over $25,000, Cruz said.

‘Merry Christmas’

There’s a postscript to this story, perfect for the holiday.

Miller and Goldman stayed in Wichita a second night on Tuesday.

They headed south Wednesday morning at about 6 a.m.

In south Wichita, a Wichita patrol car suddenly pulled into traffic behind them, and the officer inside flipped on his red and blue lights.

They pulled over.

“I thought, ‘Oh, boy, what now?’ ” Miller said.

It was Berry, who had had that good idea about the impound sticker.

He recognized Miller and Goldman when he saw them pass by on I-135.

“He said he just wanted to say merry Christmas,” Miller said.

This story was originally published December 23, 2016 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Wichita visitors had truck, guns and a dog named Shadow stolen."