Thousands join search for Lucky, dog stolen in Pennsylvania, on Facebook
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — The community has rallied to find Lucky, the dog that was inside an 87-year-old Pittsburgh-area man's car when it was stolen. A Facebook page dedicated to bringing him home has thousands of members.
It's been a week and a half since 87-year-old Willard Martz had his car stolen at the Tractor Supply Company store in Mt. Pleasant with his dog Lucky still inside. Since that time, police tracked down the man they believe stole Martz's car, 43-year-old Kenneth Crider. Police recovered the car, damaged after a high-speed chase in North Carolina. Lucky, however, has never been found.
Crider told police he dumped Lucky at a rest stop near Selma, North Carolina. Since that news came out, the number of people searching for Lucky has grown into the thousands thanks in part to exploding online interest, including a Facebook group called "Bring Lucky HOME to PA."
"I saw that a dog had been stolen and I put it on my page and it took off. So I thought, 'oh, this is going to be big' and it was consuming my page. So I talked to the family and they allowed me to do a bring Lucky home page," said creator Tracy Mooney-Ruffner.
The group has grown to over 8,000 in just a matter of days and it's growing by the minute. People from Pennsylvania to North Carolina and beyond are looking for Lucky.
"We track down every lead that we get. It's unimaginable how many dogs look like him that are being found everywhere. But we send somebody, we call every single lead that we get," Mooney-Ruffner said.
They're doing everything they can. Thousands of flyers were printed in Pennsylvania and shipped for free down to North Carolina. They've talked with dog trackers and trappers and they're closely following every sighting of lost shaggy black dogs.
People have spent hours and hours in their cars searching for Lucky — he's even the topic of several RV groups and 911 dispatching groups. They're blasting information up and down the East Coast. It's an organized effort with so many caring and hoping that this constantly growing effort will bring Lucky home.