A dog trainer friend of mine, Karen Reardon Taylor, just sent a success story from one of her clients whose dog was stolen. This is a great story with lots of useful information and may help you if your dog is ever missing.

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“A note from Danielle and Brooklyn”

Thank you so much for all of your support, efforts, and prayers while my little girl was gone. I got her back after 28 and 1/2 hours on Saturday night at 9:30 pm. It took what felt like a village to get her back, and it took me being a relentless detective to bring her home, but it was well worth it. I wanted to share with all of you what happened, because I think it could help anyone who has lost or had a pet stolen.

After some serious PI work, I found out that there were 4 witnesses that had seen Brooklyn get taken from right outside my apartment front doors. They were kind enough to provide me with the details of what had happened, and a very detailed description of the woman who took her. They also said that they would provide a statement to the police and could positively identify her if they saw her again.

So with that information, I went to the police station and filed a police report. I learned that if anyone finds a dog, collar or no collar, you have 6 hours to bring that animal to an animal shelter to have it scanned for a microchip and document it as a found dog. You do not have to relinquish the dog to the shelter, but it does need to be reported properly. If you fail to do so within those 6 hours, it automatically becomes a crime and is considered stolen property. If the animal is valued at over $400.00 or you have proof that you have spent at least that amount of money on the dog, it then becomes Grand Theft and a felony!!!

With this information, I re-made all of my “missing” posters to “Stolen Dog” posters and put in bold letters on them, that a police report has been filed and that the suspect can be identified. This is what got my girl home! Within an hour of replacing my old signs with the new ones, in the same exact places that they were for 24 hours, I got my one and only phone call. It was a woman who said her friend saw the poster and took a picture of it on his phone and sent it to her. Long story short, she said the dog she had looked like Brooklyn, but that she was in Orange County with her. I LIVE IN WEST LA!!!! She said that she would be back in LA later that night. I told her she was micro chipped and she told me that she didn’t think she was because she couldn’t feel it!! 
I told her to meet me at the vet to have her microchip scanned if she wanted definitive proof that she was my dog. I wanted to jump out of my skin!

She never called again, and when we finally called her, she was already back in LA, and at the vet’s office waiting to have her microchip scanned. I rushed to the office and there was the exact woman the witnesses had descried with my baby in her lap!! She told us this BS story about how she found Brooklyn, which was a total lie. She would have kept her, sold her, or given her away, if my scare tactics hadn’t of worked. Posting on the sign that she could be identified and that the police were involved, as well as telling her that Brooklyn was micro chipped was enough to scare her into bringing her back. I walked away with my dog, and if my sister wasn’t there, I would have beaten the crap out of this woman and pressed charges.

So just a warning to all my fellow dog owners and lovers out there, there are some really shady and awful people around, so be so careful!! If you have a stolen animal, be persistent, never give up, and continue to question, question, question, everyone you can. Don’t be afraid to go to the police, they actually will help. If you keep pursuing everyone and everything, people get scared, and it is your best chance of getting your pet back. I am so relieved to have my girl home, and I have not let her leave my arms! LOL. Thank you so much!!

AND I WANT TO PERSONALLY THANK ALL OF YOU WHO HELPED PASS THE WORD HERE, AND WITH THE RESCUES…THANKS FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!”

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A big thanks to Danielle for letting us share your story for others to learn from and thanks to Karen for forwarding it in the first place.

BTW, if you are looking for fun training classes in the San Fernando Valley, check out Karen’s website at MY BEST FRIEND OBEDIENCE.