MALTBY — Jim and Carolyn Dent have lived in their Maltby home for over 40 years. They renovated the house themselves and raised a family there. It’s not a place where anything bad could happen, they thought.
Then, on Oct. 26, a couple of men broke into the house while the Dents were inside. Armed with nothing but spunk and a little luck, they said they called police and ran off the suspects.
Carolyn, 75, was upstairs getting dressed around 11 a.m. when a man wearing a mask and camo pants showed up at her bedroom door. He said he was a federal agent and he was looking for a fugitive.
She didn’t believe him. She tried to pull off his mask, but didn’t get a good look at his face because he quickly covered it with his hand and fled downstairs.
Meanwhile, Jim, 77, was in the bathroom. He hurried out when he heard his wife calling for help. He saw her and two strangers in the kitchen.
“You don’t belong here,” Jim told the men. “Get out of here.”
They told him the same story about being federal agents.
“Where’s your ID? Show me your ID,” Jim demanded.
The men allegedly pulled out handguns and told Jim to get on the ground. When he refused, he said they pistol-whipped him in the head, kicked him to the ground, and zip-tied his hands behind his back.
Jim said there was a time when he was heftier — he played football in college — and may have fought back more. But he thought about his wife and decided to follow their orders, he said.
The burglars demanded money. Jim said they didn’t have any. One of them went upstairs to search the bedroom.
They apparently had forgotten about Carolyn. She went into the TV room, where she had a cellphone. She tried calling 911 but wasn’t fast enough, she said. One of the suspects found her and took the phone. He told her to get on the ground.
When he left the room, Carolyn grabbed the house phone that was in the same room. She thinks maybe he was too young to know about the landline.
She called 911 and gave her address before the suspect hung up the phone.
Realizing the call went through, he told his partner he was leaving.
They allegedly took Jim’s keys from his pocket and drove off in his truck. Then Jim got free of his zip-tie cuffs, grabbed his rifle, and followed them out the door.
“I’m at the point where I’m going to do something,” he said.
But they were gone. Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies showed up soon after.
For a moment, the husband and wife could breathe a sigh of relief. No one was seriously hurt and nothing of note was missing, besides the truck and their cellphones.
“I don’t know what would’ve happened if she didn’t get to 911,” Jim said.
Deputies found the truck on Monday on Olympic Drive in Everett. No suspects have been identified.
Now the couple live in a state of unease. Jim said his ribs still hurt from when he was kicked. They have talked about selling the house they’ve lived in for so long. Carolyn reflects on all of the memories they have here.
“It’s a happy place,” she said.
“Until things like this happen,” Jim said.
“I’m not going to let it define how I live,” his wife said.
Zachariah Bryan: 425-339-3431; zbryan@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @zachariahtb.
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