Terrebonne man allegedly blew up a shed, stole a Jeep on an alpaca farm

Published 3:13 pm Tuesday, July 25, 2023

An allegedly intoxicated man is accused of blowing up a shed in Terrebonne on Monday before stealing a Jeep on a neighboring alpaca farm and crashing it into fences and gates around the farm property.

Debbie Miller, an owner of Crescent Moon Ranch, the alpaca farm, said while her Jeep came out totaled; no alpacas were harmed during the incident.

Christopher Valentin Van Wambeke-Ward, 35, of Terrebonne, was arrested after the incident with the help of a police dog named Vinnie, Sgt. Jason Wall, spokesman for the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, said in a news release Tuesday.

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office was dispatched just before 5 p.m. Monday after getting a call about a man starting a fire in a shed on the 1400 block of E Avenue in Terrebonne, which caused a large explosion, according to the release.

As law enforcement arrived at the fire, a second person called 911 about a man at Ace Hardware with no shoes who was rambling incoherently, Wall said. Moments later a third person called 911 reporting a man had jumped a fence onto the Crescent Moon Ranch, the release said.

Someone at the alpaca farm then called 911 to report the man had stolen a vehicle on the property and was driving recklessly through fields, crashing into fences and gates, before getting back on U.S. Highway 97, Wall said.

The sheriff’s office and Oregon State Police converged on the area and attempted to locate the stolen vehicle. They found Wambeke-Ward back at the burning shed, where he had allegedly driven the stolen Jeep.

Wambeke-Ward was arrested and taken to the Deschutes County jail on suspicion of driving under the influence of intoxicants, unauthorized use of a motor vehicle, three counts of first-degree criminal mischief, two counts of reckless driving and six counts of recklessly endangering another person, the release said.

Wambeke-Ward has a long list of violations in Deschutes and Marion counties dating as far back as 2006, court records showed. In 2017, Wambeke-Ward was charged and convicted of similar crimes after he stole a van from a local business and fled from police.