Maplewood family holding out hope stolen dog will be returned: "We want our baby back"
MAPLEWOOD, Minn. -- A Maplewood family is hoping to reunite with their dog after he was stolen from the front porch of their Maplewood home last Tuesday.
Chanessa Gipson, 34, and Christopher Brigham, 24, were charged Thursday with two counts of theft each for allegedly taking a 3-year-old French Bulldog named Pablo from his home on the morning of May 9.
Maplewood police officers were sent to the 1400 block of Silkman Avenue East and spoke with a woman who said her dog, which she had paid $10,000 for, had escaped from the backyard and had been on the front stoop when he was stolen.
WCCO caught up with the dog's owner, Lynnea, who is still holding out hope for her pup and is asking people to keep an eye out for him.
"We didn't even realize that Pablo was gone right away because as far as we knew, Pablo was still in the backyard," Lynnea said.
Surveillance video captured the incident, showing a woman walking up the front steps and knocking on the front door before taking the dog.
"...They take Pablo, they put him in a black Jeep and they leave. And the whole interaction takes about a minute and a half. We don't even have time to answer the door," Lynnea said.
The family thought Pablo would eventually show up in a pound or on social media, but when he didn't, they took to the streets.
Lynnea eventually received a response to one of her many missing signs for Pablo, but it wasn't the kind of response she was expecting.
Two days later, charging documents say that a man, later identified as Brigham, contacted Lynnea on Facebook. He said he had her dog and would not return it unless she paid him $500.
"He had reached out and said 'I think I have your dog, how much is your reward?' I said, 'I have a hundred dollars cash in my pocket right now. I will bring it to you.' And he responded back and said, 'I'm gonna need at least five hundred,'" said Lynnea.
She says she knew that the person messaging had Pablo because she had requested and received photos and a video of him.
When she asked to meet to exchange the dog for money, Brigham stopped replying.
Charging documents say that Pablo's owner later received a call from a man who would not identify himself but said that Brigham had stolen Pablo. The man went on to say Brigham and a woman scout out dogs who look lost and sell them for profit or sell them back to the owners for a reward or finder's fee.
Investigators were able to contact Brigham and warned him if he did not return the dog that same day, he would face criminal charges.
Brigham allegedly claimed he did not have the dog and had returned Pablo to Gipson.
Investigators spoke to Gipson, who said Brigham was claiming she had the dog when she did not.
When asked if she took the dog, Gipson said Pablo had been running into traffic when they stopped for him. She claimed she knocked on several doors before deciding to take him home until his owner came forward.
She then went on to say that Brigham took Pablo from her home.
Investigators say Brigham still denies having the dog.
Police have still yet to locate Pablo and are considering animal cruelty charges if his condition has worsened due to not receiving his medicine.
"If you see him, he's got a blind left eye. He's got a scar on his lip. He's hard to miss," said Lynnea. "He pukes when he eats the wrong things. He pees in the house. Nobody wants him as a dog but his family and we're his family and we want our baby back."
Brigham and Gipson were both arrested.