Police held the occupants of a stolen car at gunpoint Friday morning near the Interstate 5 bridge. The car, a 2007 Ford Focus, was apparently taken without permission a day or two prior by the owner’s 15-year-old daughter, said Washington State Patrol Trooper Will Finn.
Shortly after 11 a.m., a WSP sergeant came upon the Ford Focus, which was disabled on the shoulder of I-5 southbound near the bridge. At the time, he didn’t know the car was stolen. The three people inside the car said they had run out of gas and were waiting for someone to bring them some, Finn said.
After the sergeant drove away, WSP dispatch told him that the car had been reported stolen on Thursday. The sergeant then turned around and drove back to where the Ford Focus was parked. He ordered the three people out of the car at gunpoint, including the girl suspected of taking her dad’s car, Finn said. Vancouver police officers arrived shortly after to assist.
The driver, 33-year-old Daniel Rude, of Wenatchee was arrested and booked into the Clark County Jail on suspicion of possessing a stolen vehicle, possessing a controlled substance and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The 15-year-old girl, also from Wenatchee, was transported to the Clark County Juvenile Justice Center. Police found out she was a runaway and had some outstanding warrants, Finn said. The other passenger, an 18-year-old man, was questioned by police and then dropped off at a train station, where he took a train home to Wenatchee.
