Dog Stolen During Sherman Oaks Burglary Returned To Owner
SHERMAN OAKS (CBSLA) — A Labradoodle named Stella stolen during a burglary in Sherman Oaks Friday night, brought to an animal hospital, and then taken again has been returned.
Stella, a 4 1/2-year-old black Labradoodle, was taken when thieves broke into Barbara Goodhill's Sherman Oaks home through a second-story window, ransacked her home, stole jewelry, electronics.
She was asking the thieves to return Stella, no questions asked and offered a $500 reward.
On Tuesday, Goodhill was at a local printer making lost dog posters when she recieved a call from her brother saying Southeast Area Animal Control Authority in Downey had contacted him regarding Stella.
According to SAACA, a young man pushed Stella through their gate around 9 a.m. Tuesday and fled. They reported her to be healthy and seemingly unharmed and she had since been reunited with Goodhill.
About 90 minutes after the burglary, two men walked Stella into VCA Advanced Care Center in Lawndale.
"They sent an alert out and within an hour I got a message that Stella had been found. They said she was at an animal hospital in Lawndale," Goodhill said.
"Apparently they must have had an impulse to do the right thing at that moment and they wanted to leave her. They claimed they found her. They claimed she was a stray."
As the attendant got the microchip information, the men slipped out with Stella and never returned.
"They ran in fear," Goodhill said. "The chip would obviously prove that she had been stolen."
It was not immediately clear if the person who eventually surrendered Stella was involved in the robbery.
