Four show dogs in stolen van reunited with their owners

By By FOX 12 Staff

Click here for updates on this story

    VANCOUVER Washington (KPTV) — UPDATE: Four stolen show dogs were recovered late Saturday night by a good samaritan who spotted the van that was carrying them.

Portland police confirmed to FOX 12 that a passerby spotted the Mercedes cargo van parked in the Lone Pine Trailer Park on St. Johns Road in Vancouver and rescued the dogs.

Portland police confirmed the dogs were OK and were returned to their owners’ Portland hotel and are now heading to the Rose City Classic Dog Show.

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information enters the newsroom.

——

Vandra Huber has been making her way from the Seattle area to the The Rose City Dog Show for the last 20 years. But Saturday morning turned into a nightmare when her dogs were taken.

They were in the north Portland Oxford Suites parking lot.

Huber’s friend Ed loaded the show dogs into their kennels and into the van. Two of them were puppies just 6 months old. The other two were beloved family dogs.

Ed started the van, then poked his head back into the hotel to let Huber know it was time to go. When they came back out, there was no van and no dogs.

Huber said that moment was panic.

“Just total panic,” she said.

Police arrived shortly before 8 a.m.

The dogs were just here to finishe the championship, Huber said.

“They sleep on the bed,” she said. “They’re my kids. I couldn’t have human children, so these puppies are my children. Most anybody can say that if I was going to die and come back as a dog, I’d want to do it at Vandra’s house.”

Huber has been breeding show dogs for more than 40 years and said she has never experienced something like this.

The van is a 2020 Mercedes-Benz Metris cargo van, dark blue in color, with no plates and a temporary tag in the rear window. There was a handicap placard and a Rose City Dog Show parking pass in the front window. The van has a metal divider between the passenger compartment and the cargo area. It has tinted windows on the sides and rear hatch. In the back are red kennels.

She said a tracking system has been activated on the van.

“It doesn’t stand out like a bright red one,” Huber said. “I used to have a red one, but not now. I don’t even have a blue one.”

Since tracking’s been activated, Huber said the vehicle has yet to move and ping a trackable signal. That concerns her, because “if someone parks this van and decides it’s going to be their new home instead of a tent, they don’t move it and we can’t find it.”

Each passing hour has become more and more difficult, as the thought of her dogs in a cold van consumes her.

“By now, they’re going to be really hungry because they would’ve eaten and been at the show,” Huber said.

She said she wished there was some sort of widespread phone alert for furry family members too, “because for many of us they mean as much as human children. For those of us who can’t have kids, it means the same.”

If the Rose City Dog Show comes to an end, and the dogs are yet to be found, she said she’s staying put, “and that’s hard for a breeder to say, because we have baby puppies at home. My husband’s in charge of those. I’m not leaving. I have to find them.”

Huber said friends who have gone through a similar situation have told her they’ll help her come up with a $10,000 reward for the safe return of her animals.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.