A Pennsylvania family is crediting their recently adopted 4-year-old rescue dog, Edgar, with helping to thwart an alleged child abduction attempt in their home on April 28.
Thom Lambert, 40, told
FOX43 that Edgar, a Treeing Walker Coonhound, recently frightened a man police believe to be 20-year-old Thomas Dewald, away from their home in the middle of the night.
Dewald was accused of abducting another child three days earlier before allegedly
stuffing her in a wooden trunk at his grandmother’s house before the girl escaped.
“It was like a growl-howl,” Lambert told FOX43 about the noise Edgar made that alerted the family to an intruder inside the home. “It was obvious he was really upset and as soon as I got him to quit barking, I heard sounds of someone going down the stairs.”
Lambert said he went downstairs to check on the noise on April 28 when he discovered that the kitchen window and door were open,
Pennlive.comreports. He told the paper that he immediately ran back upstairs to check on his three young daughters, who were asleep in their beds, before calling 911.
“The dog started barking and woke up the homeowner and scared away Dewald. That dog potentially saved the little girls’ lives,” Pennsylvania State Trooper Megan Frazer tells PEOPLE. “The dog is a hero.”
“It is scary,” she adds.
Frazer says Dewald admitted to going inside the Lamberts’ home on April 28.
“When they interviewed Dewald, he admitted to picking out that house because he knew there were young children in there,” she says.
'Hero' Rescue Pup Credited with Saving 3 Children from Being Abducted in the Middle of the Night
I had thought the guy was arrested on April 26... but I guess he was not. That's terrifiying that AFTER the Gemma escaped, he tried it again within 72 hours!
