APACHE JUNCTION, Arizona: A dog stolen from an 80-year-old woman was found by police two months later more than 2000 miles from its owner's home.
Lillian Brown was separated from her brown rat-terrier mix 'Bobby' in early April, when left in the care of a neighbour, according to news website www.azcentral.com. Reports say Bobby has been Lillian's constant companion since her husband of 48 years passed away recently.
According to www.wane.com, Lillian lost Bobby when she visited the doctor. After leaving Bobby with a neighbor, she returned to find both Bobby and the neighbor had disappeared.
After writing to her local paper the Apache Junction News for help, a reporter tracked the dog down to a location in Fort Wayne, Indiana, coincidently at the address of Lillian's former neighbor. According to www.azcentral.com, Fort Wayne police contacted the suspect and found that the dog was indeed stolen.
Bobby was quickly taken to the Animal Care and Control center in Fort Wayne. Police in Apache Junction say they are filing felony charges against the former neighbour for theft of the dog.
Unfortunately such crimes are not uncommon, with statistics estimating that as many as two million dogs are stolen each year. National Pet Recovery, a private pet recovery company says about 41 percent of the cases reported to them involved a stolen dog, as reported by Petplace.
While Continental Airlines flew Bobby back to Phoenix free of charge, Peggy Bender of Fort Wayne Animal Control told the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel that Bobby now has been implanted with a microchip so he will never go missing again.
Most importantly, Lillian is thrilled to have her Bobby back after his two-month 2000 mile adventure.
I like it when a bad story ends up just nicely- like this one where a pet and its owner are reunited!
I hate these petnappers. they are just plain sick. imagine, taking a dog from it's family just so you could have a dog? If they wanted one so badly, there are too many pets out there waiting to be adopted! Thinking about it, pet-napping must be so common. why would they think of microchips to be implanted onto a pet if it weren't so common right?
On another note, I'm glad that there is a company helping out in recovering dogs. At least you know that when something like this happens to you, your hopes of finding your beloved doggy won't just go to the air.
I wonder why the neighbor wanted to steal the rat-terrier in the first place? Hardly makes sense to me.
Good story. But you know what would make it better? It would be soo much cuter if the dog actually traced its way back to its owner on foot- haha should make a good animal movie.
What kind of person steals another ones pet? These people should really get some jail time! If the same thing happened to me, I would definitely file charges and even punch the lights out of that person.
The kind that don't have money to buy their own.. lol!
LOL!!! You got a point there man! but seriously, if want a pet that bad, go adopt one.
Why would anyone want to steal that dog?
did that neighbor and the dog have a special bond? strange. why steal a neighbor's dog? much more, an old woman's dog! sick.
i hope the perp who did this got jailed for it. i really hate it when i hear stories like this. i mean, how can these people steal other people's dogs? there are just so many idiots out there.