SPOKANE -- Iraq War veteran Sgt. Robert Dye fought to protect America. Now he is fighting to keep his own property safe.
In the last few weeks, thieves have targeted the Army National Guardsman twice.
Dye recently returned from a training drill to find his vehicle gone. He bought the truck with the bonus money he received for joining the military.
The truck was Dye’s only transportation to the VA hospital where he gets care for wounds he suffered in combat. Dye took shrapnel to his right eye.
Police found the truck in an empty field. The thieves ripped out the dashboard and stole his stereo speakers. Dye took the vehicle to a downtown Spokane auto shop to get it fixed. While the truck was in the parking lot of that shop, it was stolen again. Police found it a second time near a West Spokane hotel.
“[Police] say the first time is coincidence. The second time, they say you’re starting to look like you’re being targeted,” Dye said.
He is a man of resilience, focusing on his new life back in the states. But now, the young soldier says he does not feel save in the very community he fights to protect.
“I feel very violated. My complete thought of being able to be safe and have my property safe is just gone,” he said.
Dye feels he may have been targeted because of the military stickers on his truck.
He says thieves took more than $4,000, plus equipment and military gear from his truck.
No one has been arrested for the crime.
