Bend family told its lost dog is being held for ransom

A Bend family is heartbroken after its dog, Hershey, ran away, and the person who said he has the dog wants money in exchange.

“He’s just a big goofball,” said Greg Mikkelson of his brother’s dog Hershey, a chocolate lab.

Mikkelson’s brother was on vacation when Hershey ran away on Sunday evening in the Pilot Butte area.

“It’s tough, because to my brother and his fiancee, the dogs are their children,” Mikkelson said.

Mikkelson posted a flyer of Hershey and was contacted by a person on Facebook.

“He was only going to give the dog back if we gave him money,” Mikkelson said, “because he’s homeless and he wanted money in exchange for my brother’s dog. It scares me that this happened in a community like this. where dogs are so loved.”

The Mikkelsons agreed to meet the man who claimed to have their dog. They waited in a parking lot for two hours, but he never showed up.

Bend police are investigating, and officials there said they’ve never seen a case like this. Neither have the Mikkelsons.

“Dogs are very important to people,” Mikkelson said. “They’re family. To us, it’s like stealing someone from your family.”

The man later reached out to the Mikkelsons again and said he gave the dog to someone else.

The family reached out to him as well, with little success.

“He hasn’t given a specific ‘let’s meet here’ or anything like that,” Mikkelson said. “He just said, ‘I have your dog.'”

Mikkelson said Hershey has already been through enough in his life.

“He had a surgery at a shelter,” Mikkelson said. “He wasn’t going to survive through it all. He got attacked by another dog. My brother and his fiancee took him on to help him recover.”

Hershey had found a loving home.

“He’s their fur baby,” Mikkelson said.

Now, they hope to be able to bring Hershey back home.

If you have any information, call (541) 390-4069 or (541) 350-0654.

He is neutered and not wearing a collar, but he’s micro-chipped.