Chihuahua Pup Stolen From Store

WJXT-TV
updated 2:49 p.m. CT, Fri., Dec. 19, 2008

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A small puppy with a big price tag was recently stolen from a Westside pet store.

The storeowner at Puppies Galore and More on Blanding Boulevard said she and her employees are especially concerned because the stolen Chihuahua weighs only one pound and has special dietary needs.

Investigators said a woman was caught on tape carrying the pup out of the store without paying.

The thief looks like a regular customer leaving a pet store, but a closer look at the store's surveillance video shows she was cradling a small animal in her arms as she walked around and then left.

"All of a sudden a little girl who comes in pretty regularly, one of our regular customers, comes in and says, 'Oh, did that girl just buy the puppy?' and we were like, 'No,'" said owner Marsha Kello.

Kello said the woman stole a cream-colored Chihuahua. The owner said it appears that the woman worked with a friend, a man seen on the surveillance tape walking out behind her as she left.

Kello said the woman and her friend kept picking up different dogs until she left with one.

"And that girl just zooms past the counter and out the door, and away they went," Kello said.

The owner said because the stolen puppy is so small it needs to eat special food on a regular basis or its blood sugar will go down. She said that is what has employees worried.

Kello believes if the woman didn't pay for the $850 dog, she probably won't pay for proper care.

"If she's not in the hands of someone who knows what they're doing, she's probably already dead," Kello said.

She asks that the public take a look at the surveillance video and notify authorities if either the man or woman in the video looks familiar.

"I literally didn't sleep last night, worrying about this puppy," Kello said.

The stolen puppy is a one-pound, cream-colored female with a blaze on its face and around the collar and a white tip on its tail.

The owner said in the past seven years she has had 10 dogs stolen from the store.

Owner Worried About Safety, Health Of Stolen Puppy - Jacksonville- msnbc.com