Trio reportedly beats man with bat, smashes his car and steals his puppy in Whatcom County
A trio of people is suspected of attacking a man with a baseball bat outside a Whatcom County storage facility, smashing his car and stealing his 11-month-old black lab puppy.
Lynden Police booked Tempest Marie Jean Duke, 31, into Whatcom County Jail on Saturday, Nov. 13, on suspicion of driving with a suspended license.
Whatcom County Superior Court records show Duke also had outstanding warrants for first-degree robbery, fourth-degree assault and second-degree malicious mischief. Jail records show she is being held in lieu of $25,000 bail.
On Aug. 5, the victim walked into the Ferndale Police Department with small cuts and bruises on the back of his head and neck “consistent with being struck with a hard object (end of a baseball bat) and cut by automotive glass,” documents state.
The victim reported that he was robbed by Duke, 37-year-old Joshua Burton and a third, unidentified person while they were armed with a baseball bat four days earlier, according to documents.
Duke and Burton were both named in charging documents filed in Whatcom County Superior Court Aug. 13.
According to court documents, the victim reported:
▪ At at approximately 3:33 a.m. Aug. 1, Burton and Duke arrived at Pacific Self Storage driving a gray Toyota Camry. A white Ford F250 driven by the unidentified person also arrived at the same time.
▪ The victim was seated in his own car outside the storage facility along with his 11-month-old puppy.
▪ Burton got out of the Camry carrying a baseball bat, yelled at the victim and began to strike the victim’s car with the bat, breaking out the driver’s side window, windshield, passenger side front window, dashboard and tachometer and causing an estimated $4,700 in damage.
▪ The unidentified person also got out of the truck and leaned into the victim’s car.
▪ Burton then hit the victim with the baseball bat, leaned into the car and began hitting the victim with his fists.
▪ As the victim was being assaulted, he remembers hearing Duke shout, “Get the dog” and being grabbed from behind by Duke.
▪ Either Duke or the unidentified man took the puppy from the car, and Burton pulled a box containing a Sony Playstation 4 from the back of the victim’s car. The Playstation was valued at $325 and the puppy at $350.
The robbery was captured on video, according to documents, and matched the description of events by the victim.
On Aug. 6, the victim also showed police a photo posted to Duke’s Snapchat account that showed the stolen puppy taken eight hours earlier, documents state.
