Missing dogs found safe in stolen van
From the Chicago Tribune
Dogs found safe in stolen van
By Jason Meisner and Jeremy Gorner | Tribune reporters
9:29 AM CST, January 15, 2008
Chicago police Tuesday morning found the van that was stolen Monday with five dogs from a pet-sitting service still inside it. The dogs were safely recovered.
The van was found at 7:22 a.m. in the 1200 block of South Union Avenue, Police Officer Laura Kubiak said. Animal Care and Control was taking temporary custody of the dogs.
One of the owners, Anne Zellner, who spent hours Monday night driving along Chicago's snowy lakefront looking for her 2-year-old boxer, Chloe, said she was overjoyed.
But Zellner, the daughter of noted defense attorney Kathleen Zellner, said she was unlikely to send Chloe back to the pet-sitting service, Fetch & Play, she had been using for the last year and a half. "I'm a little too protective," she said. "I understand it was a mistake. I understand they feel horrible. They've always been good to Chloe. . . .If it was a child [at day care] and they lost your kid for a day, you wouldn't send them back."
Colin Hebson, who has been sending Seamus, his 11-year-old black Labrador retriever, to the day-care operation for seven years, said he still trusts it to watch over his dog.
"People make mistakes. People use poor judgment. I doubt this will ever happen again," he said.
Hebson said he was up all night worrying about Seamus. He was on his way to Champaign on business when the owner of Fetch & Play contacted him and told him the good news. "I'm ecstatic!" Hebson said.
The five owners had offered a $7,000 reward for the return of their pets.
The drama began Monday afternoon when a man caring for the animals left them in the still-running van as he dropped off another dog on a Near North Side street.
The pet-sitting service is a small, privately owned operation that charges $16 per day to watch the animals, including picking them up in the morning and dropping them off in the afternoon.
Owner Jose Varela said Monday the theft occurred while one of his employees was beginning his afternoon drop-off with the dogs in the back of a white van. He double-parked the van about 2 p.m. in the 100 block of West Hubbard Street and left the vehicle unlocked with the engine running while he went inside to deliver a dog, Varela said.
"When he came out, the van was gone. The dogs were gone. He called me right away," Varela said. He said they first thought the city might have towed the van because it was double-parked, but once they learned it had been stolen they called police.
The driver had worked with Fetch & Play for about six months. Varela said he and his employees are "sick" over the incident.
"These dogs are part of the family," Varela said. "We just want their safe return. The thieves can keep the van."
Varela could not be reached for comment Tuesday morning.
jmeisner@tribune.com
jgorner@tribune.com
