MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A Miami-Dade County family has their beloved dog back after they said it was stolen last week.
It turns out that someone was just trying to help what they thought was a stray dog.
Pepper is a 12-year-old Shih Tzu who was taken on Friday.
“It’s our first family pet,” said owner Keneshia Riley. “We just want our pet back, we just want Pepper back.”
Riley and her family were devastated and hoped someone could help them find Pepper.
After Local 10 News’ report aired on Monday, a neighbor called her saying a woman posted a picture of Pepper on a website for missing dogs.
She called the number on the online flyer.
“We both connected and realized that’s my baby,” Riley said. “She just happened to see him by himself. I see that she immediately posted him (online), so it wasn’t no bad intent.”
It was back on Friday afternoon when Riley’s son let the 12-year-old Shih Tzu out into the front yard to go to the bathroom and then turned around to begin prepping Pepper’s dinner.
“And when he went to go open the door to let him back in, because he’s usually there waiting, he was nowhere to be found,” she said.
The family began frantically searching around the neighborhood and finally found surveillance video from a neighbor’s house.
In the footage, the dog can be seen in the grass just across the street from their home on Southwest 177th Terrace when a dark-colored pickup truck pulls up, turns around, someone gets out, walks up to Pepper and grabs him before getting back in the truck and driving away north on Southwest 135th Court.