AIRWAY HEIGHTS, Wash. — A man with 28 felony convictions is once again behind bars. Sheriff deputies say 44-year-old Brian Gorder robbed an Airway Heights couple inside their home near 2200 N Craig Road at gunpoint.
57-year-old Tina Stiles said the armed man was inside her house for nearly half-an-hour. She told KREM 2 she's always been able to keep a calm head and thinks that's why she came out of this unharmed.
It started as a busy morning. Tina Stiles woke up to her French bulldog going into labor.
"I was in her crate with her getting ready to have second puppy," Sties said.
The last thing on her mind was an unlocked front door.
"She had her first puppy at 8 and he came through the door at 8:30," Stiles said.
He was an armed robber looking for money.
"He comes in with his hand over his arm or his arm over his face kind of covering it and then bent down and then waiving a gun," Stiles said. "He says, 'I was told that you have money in the safe.'"
Tina was tied up. She had no idea what might happen next.
"I was scared shi*less, for real, but I was definitely trying to stay calm," Stiles said.
Tina's husband was next to her in their living room.
"He just kept telling him, 'Don't hurt her. Do not hurt her,'" Stiles said. "And I'm like 'I don't have money. I'm on social security.'"
Deputies say 44-year-old Brian Gorder got into the safe, but didn't find any money. All he found were papers. So, he took off with the couple's phones.
"I'm pretty calm," Stiles said. "I didn't freak out until after he left."
Tina called 911 and got back to what she had been doing. Her dog was still in labor.
"It was a long time for her to go through all of that," Stiles said.
Three of the five puppies survived. Tina believes they all would have lived had there not been so many interruptions that morning. She still has a lot of questions.
"Keeping a level head is how you survive in this world," Stiles said.
Before Gorder was arrested, deputies say he broke into another woman's home nearby. He's being held on $100,000 bond.
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