I am a member of a lost and found page on FB for my county. This woman posted a couple of days ago that her two boxers were missing. I obviously shared it on my page, and told her that if I saw them, I would catch them and put them in my dog's kennel outside and let her know. (She lives about a mile and a half from my house.) She gave us all an update a few hours ago. She had one dog returned to her...it was STOLEN right out of her yard and sold! The person who bough it immediately contacted her. Her white Boxer is still missing, but someone mentioned that there was a large white dog hit by a car in town, and they had a fire truck and two police while they took a damage report on the car and moved the dog. Still waiting to hear if it was hers...she has gone to the police station to see if they can show her a picture. (Where the dog was hit is about four miles north of where we live, and about five miles north of where they were last seen together.)

The point of all of that is, I am terrified to let Artemis out of my sight! I normally put her in the kennel outside when she eats, because she is food aggressive, and when we eat meals inside. I can see the kennel from my living room and kitchen, but I am so concerned that someone is going to be bold enough to sneak in my yard and snatch her up! People have no sense of decency! People are too bold! I have wasted so much time going to the window to make sure she is still in her kennel for the past day. I called the vet this morning, and she has an appointment to get microchipped. I should have already done it, but I am frantic to get it done now.

I hate people!

Security camera? An hot wire electric fence with an ample charge? A perimeter alarm? (I'm thinking about the latter because Ami would get in any car that drives up the driveway...at least I would know someone was here a could go out the door...

Yes, my uncle's young purebred Scotty terrier was stolen off his front porch. Of course, the thrives didn't bother with his puppy mutt sister. >

*thieves

That's terrible!! What is wrong with people Thankfully the person who purchased the dog was honest enough to return him/her.

Honest people who buy these dogs is the key here. A lot of people who buy these dogs though either don't want to turn the dog over because they know they will likely lose a bunch of money since they bought a stolen dog, never check dog ads after getting their dog to ever see that the dog is stolen, or they just don't care once they get the dog and become attached to it. If more people were honest when they end up with stolen dogs and help the owners with descriptions and all the contact info they came up with from the sellers of the stolen dog it would put a little more fear into the thieves. Unfortunately many thieves transport dogs a long ways away to sell them. We go through scares here about once a year where dogs end up missing in droves. Don't have to be purebreds, just interesting looking dogs, and it puts us on high alert. Makes us happy that we have a privacy fence so no one can easily tell when they are out and Keno would bark with excitement if anyone walked up so I would be alerted.

A word of caution for anyone thinking of electrifying a fence to ward off trespassers. If you live in town there could be building codes that will play against you. Many cities have codes that say all electrical work must be done by a licensed electrician. If this is the case in your area and you put up a hot wire that gets somebody and it wasn't done by said electrician, you could be sued. It's stupid but true.

This may be a stupid question, but why would someone steal a dog (or buy a stolen dog)? Couldn't they just go to a shelter and adopt one? I'm genuinely curious here.

The woman that bought the dog was told by the person she bought it from that they were having to move to an apartment, and couldn't keep the dog. She paid $50 for it. The dogs were purebred Boxers, one white and one brindle. I guess she thought that was a great deal for a pure dog, and would also be saving it from apartment life. I've been checking the lost posting to see if the one that was ran over was indeed hers.

Oh, makes sense. That poor family, being ripped apart for $50.

If you would, send the woman who paid $50 for a purebred Boxer my way. I have some lakefront property that I picked up real cheap and I'd make her an exceptional bargain.

If he sarcasm in that escapes you then I'll draw it out. At various times I've been offered some fantastic bargains. I like Seiko watches, in fact I have three - total value about $500 - an acquaintance offered me a Grand Seiko (retail for about $4,000) for $500. Sure, I'd love to have that watch - but let's be realistic, he could have hocked it for twice that, at least. There was something wrong with the "deal" and I, literally, wasn't buying it.

If a stranger offered me a purebred Husky for $50 - as much as I'd like to save the dog - I'd have to refuse. It isn't realistic, there's something very wrong there. (( In fact I might locate the closest sheriff to suggest that he ask questions. ))

Stephanie, I'm really sorry that someone decided that they could 'make a buck' off her misery and I hope that her other dog gets returned to her in good health.

Now the question I inferred earlier. As a matter of curiosity what would you do? Pay the $50 to save the dog and maybe return it to it's owner - which encourages the villain to continue his nefarious activity. Simply leave the dog to whatever fate befell it? Contact the police to see if they could do anything - probably not since they have no real complainant.
Looks like a real Catch-22 to me ... I'd have to do what felt right at the time .....

Pet theft is rampant in my area, and in fact not far from my house a BYB had 8 or 9 husky puppies stolen when they were only 5 weeks old. We never let Loki outside by himself just due to the fact that we are helicopter parents and just want to keep him out of trouble, and a section of my fence is only 4ft. But between demanding ransoms and re-selling the dogs it can be a lucrative thing for these criminals.

I personally would not buy any animal for that cheap. It would seem very fishy to me. If I would have known for sure that a dog belonged to a particular person, I might consider paying for it and getting it back for her. I would hate to think of what these people do to these poor animals. I hate people. I like my cats and my dog...I don't understand it.

A Lab and a little Boston Terrier have also been posted as missing. The Lab is from an area close to my parents, about 15 min from me. The Boston Terrier is about a 5 min drive up from me. Artemis will not be going outside without one of us with her.

As a point of information, would people mind posting their general locations to get an idea of where this is rampant? I'm Central Massachusetts

What an awful awful practice! As if guarding your children these days wasn't dangerous enough, even your pets aren't safe! People are evil.

This is pretty common in my area (Orlando, FL).

Anya isn't allowed out of my site. On the off chance she escapes, she has a tag that says (REWARD if returned to owner).

My friend (who is married to a police officer) had her husky stolen from her back yard. She found it a few days later on Craigslist. She contacted the seller, acting like a interested buyer, and arranged too meet up in a grocery store parking lot. She said she could only write a check or could send money through PayPal, so she'd need his first and last name and phone number. Her husband ran the guy's info, and there was a warrant for his arrest.

So she met the guy in the parking lot, got her dog back, and the second the leash exchanged hands, her husband arrested him.

Ha, that was very clever of her! People are sorry.

I'm right outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee. You can't even blink these days, really, with all of the nonsense going on.

Loganberry wrote:

As a point of information, would people mind posting their general locations to get an idea of where this is rampant? I'm Central Massachusetts

Windsor Ontario, Canada. A lot of the time things stolen in southern ontario will be transported and sold in the GTA and things in the GTA get moved around to southern ontario among other areas. Just about any organized crime here has ties to Toronto. Luckily for me 4 of my neighbors are retired and home during the day, and i have a good relationship with all my neighbors.