Police asking public for help finding dog stolen from women
By Leanne Suter, Jaysha Patel, and KABC Staff
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NORTH HOLLYWOOD, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Police are asking for the public’s help finding two suspects who assaulted a woman and stole her dog at a 7-Eleven in North Hollywood.
Disturbing video shows a man and a woman knock down and assault the victim inside the store and take her dog, an 11-year-old pit bull / Rhodesian ridgeback mix named Drake.
The incident was reported at 12:46 a.m. on Sept. 26 at the store in the 11100 block of Burbank Boulevard.
“She was approached by a female and male suspect who indicated that they didn’t like the way she was treating her dog,” Detective Ryan Lee of the Los Angeles Police Department told ABC7. “There were no other words exchanged. The victim then went to use the ATM machine that was inside of the market. And then, with her back turned, she was attacked.”
After reviewing video footage, police said there was no indication that the victim had mistreated her dog.
According to Kris Kelly with the Kris Kelly Foundation, a nonprofit that works to save animals from abuse, Drake’s breed is a top draw for thieves looking for bait dogs.
“They look for dogs like this because they’re flat coated,” she said. “They don’t need them to be fighters, they need them to be bait.”
Lee said the case is “a bit interesting for us because generally we look at some of the more high-end dogs that some of our celebrities have, that seem to be hard to find.
“In this case,” the detective said, “a Rhodesian Ridgeback pit bull mix is not necessarily something that is highly coveted amongst some of the thieves that are our there. So we’re working to try to understand the motive.”
Drake’s owner is desperate to get him back and investigators hope the public will be able to identify the thieves.
“I am so scared to take my dog out at night,” said Mahrael Boutros, a North Hollywood resident. “He’s my world, and if anybody did that, I don’t know what I would do to myself.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact LAPD detectives at (818)754-8424 or provide anonymous information to Crime Stoppers at (800)222-TIPS.
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