Car Reported Stolen From West Roxbury With Dog Inside
BOSTON (CBS) - A dog walker says a small white dog named "Pooh" she has known for several years was inside her car when it was allegedly stolen Thursday afternoon in West Roxbury.
"I was driving on Baker Street going toward the VFW and I noticed out of the corner of my eye two people that were walking down the street," the dog walker, who only wanted to be identified as Erika, told WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens on Friday.
"That seemed a little off to me because I drive there every single day for my job. And then I crossed over the VFW and went up a little side street into my client's driveway which is right next to the cemetery."
Erika says she went inside the home for about 4-to-5 minutes tending to another dog, and when she came out she spotted one of the two people she saw earlier by himself, walking down a side street which caught her attention.
"I thought that was a little odd," she said.
She looked into the driveway, saw the car was gone and watched as it was being driven away.
The dog walker immediately called 911 and told police that the driver had driven down Baker Street and was heading toward Newton.
"My thought is that they had no clue that there was a dog inside," she said. "That they just wanted the car."
Pooh, a combination Shih Tzu-poodle that weighs about 15-to-20 pounds, was sleeping when the dog walker went inside the home.
Erika's car is a dark grey-blue 2011 Subaru Outback but it's not the vehicle she is worried about. It also has a Thule storage pod on the roof.
The car's license plate number is 168-DC7.
"I don't care about my car," she said. "We just want the dog back."
Erika says she has been beside herself since the dog was taken and she couldn't sleep much last night.
So, too, has the dog's owner, Iris Sonnenschein.
"We just want to know he's safe, that he hasn't been dropped off somewhere and is wandering alone in the dangers of outside," she said.
"We want somebody to find him and to call us to let us know so we can bring him home."
The suspect tried to use a credit card in Newton and also at a Dunkin' Donuts in Cleveland Circle in Brighton.
The dog walker described one of the suspects as a white man, with baggy clothing and a scruffy beard.
The other suspect is described as wearing a hood and may have been a woman.
There is a $2,500 reward for the safe return of the dog.
Anyone with information related to the case is asked to call Boston police at (617) 796-2100 or the dog's owner at (617) 775-9872.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Carl Stevens reports: