MIAMI – A German Shepherd was reunited with his owner two years after he was stolen outside an Aventura store.
It's all thanks to an identifying microchip inside the dog.
Two days before Christmas in 2017, Rian Maercks left his then four-month old dog Schiele sleeping in his vehicle while he went into the West Marine store in the 17600 block of Biscayne Boulevard.
He kept the doors to the vehicle locked and the air conditioning on, he told authorities, but someone busted a window and his puppy was taken.
At the time, Maercks was offering a $2,000 reward and set up an email address for anyone with information to contact him.
"I couldn’t compute it and this wonderful, furry, pile of joy over here was taken from me," he said.
Schiele has been through quite the journey. The dog was initially rescued from Puerto Rico after the damage and destruction of Hurricane Irma.
"Puerto Rico was just devastated by the storm and they flew in all of these abandoned pups and Schiele here was one of them," Maercks said. "I fell in love with him and I thought a good thing I can do would be to rescue him, and he really lightened up my holidays."
Finally reunited, the pair are inseparable once again.
“I was just so happy to see him. I mean, if you look at these eyes, this little face, he’s just an adorable little sweet creature,” Maercks said. “I was really, really happy, and it’s just a magical thing.”