Rick Oleka and his girlfriend Abby Sevchik were out for a walk Wednesday afternoon with Pablo, their newly adopted Australian Shepherd, just 11 weeks old. They were at the Northwest Washington Show when Sevchik joined CVS.
Oleka waited outside with Pablo and the silver Audi stopped. Four young men came out and walked to the store. They wore hoods and masks, and one had a pistol.
Oleka said he felt a gun pressed against him and heard the assailant say, “Let me take your dog.”
Another man grabbed Pablo, Oleka said, while two others took his phone and wallet.
District of Columbia police said Oleka was the victim of one of three armed robberies and shootings that occurred Wednesday afternoon in a 35-minute period that began after 4 p.m. in Brightwood Park and continued in Shaw and Eckington and nearby. to NoMa-Gallaudet Metro Station.
The attacks include the abduction of another pet – a 1-year-old French bulldog named Bruno – who was also captured at gunpoint about 15 minutes before Pablo was captured, police said.
On Thursday night, the District of Columbia police announced that Pablo had been found in the northeast and several arrests had been made before he reunited with his owners. Officials did not name the detainees, nor did they specify the charges.
“Detectives are still investigating and further details are pending. Pablo has reunited with his owners. Efforts are continuing to find the second dog, Bruno, “a police statement said.
Before receiving the happy news about Pablo, Sevchik said she was crying in her “fourth break of the hour” when the chief detective asked for a video chat. After contacting, she saw another police officer holding her lost family member.
Once at home, Pablo zoomed in on the yard, ate a large bowl of food and immediately fell asleep, Sevchik said late Thursday.
“He is shockingly normal. “We were excited to be remembered,” she said. “We are so grateful that we will all sleep so well tonight.”
Meanwhile, the frightening and frustrating ordeal of being a victim of armed robbery has begun to unfold. for Oleka and Sevchik.
“It was daylight,” said Oleka, a 30-year-old corporate lawyer. “There was a policeman not far away. There was security at CVS. There were a number of accidents that apparently took place with this car, and at that moment they fled. “
Armed arrests are coming as the county faces a 30 percent increase in violent crime this year, largely driven by a nearly 60 percent increase in robberies, from 456 at the time in 2021 to 725 this year.
3 out of 10 residents of the district do not feel safe in their neighborhood, according to a study by the Post
Murders, which rose for the fourth year in a row in 2021, have fallen slightly this year, although car thefts and shootings remain a cause for concern. A 15-year-old was fatally shot dead in Columbia Heights on Monday night, another sign that the city is struggling to regain its sense of security.
A survey by the Washington Post this year found that 3 in 10 people in the District of Columbia do not feel safe in their neighborhoods.
The first robbery took place around 4:12 p.m., when four men got out of a vehicle in block 5400 on Kansas Avenue NW, in Brightwood Park.
Jamaican owner Bruno Harvey last saw him on video from his Ring security camera when her boyfriend left their home and walked up the block. Shortly afterwards, armed robbers took the dog away.
A police report said the group approached a man while he was walking his dog. A man showed a gun and asked for Bruno and the owner’s personal belongings. The attackers fled in the car with Bruno, a mobile phone and a wallet. Bruno had a red collar and a black strap, according to Harvey.
The 30-year-old esthetician moved to the District about a year ago from San Diego and remains deeply concerned about her new community. Chatting online even suggests residents are carrying legally hidden weapons, she said.
“You don’t have to do this to go into the community,” Harvey said in a telephone interview Thursday. “You don’t have to feel insecure about walking your dog.”
Harvey said she was ready to offer a reward to get Bruno home safely.
“I’m ready to do anything to get my dog back,” Harvey said.
Police said they believe the same people abducted Pablo at 4:29 p.m. in front of the CVS on Eighth Street and Florida Avenue, south of Howard University Hospital.
Oleka and 27-year-old professional singer Sevchik said they took Pablo on April 2nd from K-9 Lifesavers, a non-profit rescue group that added $ 5,000 to a $ 10,000 police reward. The couple said they originally planned to raise Pablo, who has black and brown fur and blue eyes, but quickly realized he was their companion forever.
“He’s just a show hitchhiker,” Sevchik said. “Everywhere you look today, the tide of protectionist sentiment is flowing. She said Pablo was a mix and probably “not worth what the robbers thought.”
Police said they had found an Audi.
Just minutes after Pablo was captured, at 4:38 p.m., police said they believed the same attackers were in the Eckington neighborhood of northeastern Washington, where two men were reported shot in Block 2100 on Fourth Street NE. Police said the men received injuries that were not considered life-threatening. Police did not say whether the men were shot in an attempted robbery.
Police said they believed the same group had robbed a target at 4:48 p.m. in block 1300 of Second Street NE, near NoMa-Gallaudet metro station.
Oleka and Sevchik said the ordeal led them to rethink their place in the District. Oleka said he was disappointed with the police’s initial response, saying it seemed a struggle for detectives to piece together the crimes.
But Sevchik said she was encouraged by the outpouring of support and help on social media.
“It’s a little silver lining in all this,” she said. “We feel very supported by the people in the area.”
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