Dori: Tacoma man’s truck stolen four times this year, wife and friend chase suspect

Travis Todd’s Ford F-250 pickup is the last tangible thing the Tacoma man has that once belonged to his father, who passed away last year.

This morning, the truck was stolen from his home for the fourth time this year. The tale of recovering the pickup is nothing short of wild – including audio and video of his wife and friends catching the thief red-handed just blocks away and chasing the crook on foot through a nearby neighborhood.

The Dori Monson Show learned of Todd’s most recent theft from David Rose, Fox 13 news anchor and host of the station’s new weekly show “The Spotlight.”

This fourth theft came one week after the third theft – on Todd’s birthday.

During Friday’s heist, his wife was out getting coffee with friends, Todd told Dori.

“I was getting my daughter ready to take her to school and I hear my truck starting,” Todd described. “The first time it got stolen, they stole my catalytic converter too. … Now when you start it, it’s very, very loud.”

After calling his incredulous wife about the stolen truck, Todd – who is a single-leg amputee – got a stroke of luck.

“The guy drove right down the road, right in front of my wife and my friends” who were returning from coffee, Todd told Dori’s listeners. “They blocked the truck in, and my wife goes to the driver’s side, opens the door and starts says ‘you’re stealing my truck!’ and literally almost drags him out.”

“My buddy is yelling, ‘I’m going to get you,’” he continued, and a foot chase began.

In his friend’s foot pursuit of the thief, he captured video and audio of the chase before the thief tossed his backpack – which the friend recovered. Inside, there was a variety of tools and a cattle prod-like device, which he turned over to police.

The episode has prompted Todd to start gun shopping.

“This guy knows where I live, knows I had his stuff,” Todd said. “I’ve never owned a gun, but who knows what this guy is going to do to retaliate? Who knows if he has friends, or another drug dealer needed it, or he owes money? You don’t know with these guys these days.”

Despite Todd’s leg amputation, the truck was not specially equipped – but it does have a lot of sentimental value for him.

“My father passed away a little over a year ago,” Todd explained.

The two were in business together.

“This is the last thing that I own that was his,” he said.

Even with the physical setbacks and thefts, Todd told Dori he remains positive.

“I’m pretty good,” he said.

After a flesh-eating bacteria forced doctors to remove one leg six years ago, Todd was in a coma for six weeks, but says his “motto is ‘I’m happier now with one leg than I was with two.’”

Listen to Dori’s full interview with Travis Todd: 

Listen to Dori Monson weekday afternoons from noon – 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.