PERRY, Ga. — A dog who was stolen from Friends of Perry Animal Shelter (FOPAS) last week now has a place she can call home. This weekend, Perry Police found Chrissy, who's a 2-year-old Chihuahua, at the May Days on the Midway carnival. Chrissy was adopted from FOPAS on Tuesday morning. Lynne Gibbs says this was a happy ending.
“She was adopted this morning, so she now has a family and so she went from surrendered, to sheltered, to vetted, to rescued, to being stolen, to being back, to now she has a new home. So this is one big happy after story,” said Gibbs.
Last Wednesday, three people pulled up to FOPAS. One of them hopped the fence and grabbed Chrissy.
“We can see them on the camera, we can see them walking around we see them get her, and it's like, 'Who are they, why are they taking her, what are they going to do with her, are they gonna take care of her?'” said Gibbs.
Gibbs and her fellow co-worker were away at lunch. She says they weren't even gone 10 minutes.
A few days later, Gibbs made a Facebook post asking for help.
“They saw it and everybody was sharing it and it just spread the word, and we had a lot of people in the community looking for the vehicle and the people, just from that post,” she said.
Perry Police Captain Heath Dykes says they got a call that someone spotted the vehicle at the fairgrounds – Dykes found two of the three people there.
“We located the vehicle in the back of the fairgrounds back there, sat on the vehicle for a little while, saw an individual come to the vehicle, pull the dog out, start watering it and basically feeding the dog and then put the dog back in the vehicle,” he said.
Dykes says they were carnival workers who had traveled to Georgia for May Days on the Midway.
“Finding out the story, the individuals that were involved in taking the dog, since they've been here, their dog died, and in turn, they wanted to get another dog is what their story was,” said Dykes.
Gibbs says she's extra-careful now -- she's even added more security cameras.
“Since this happened, I have not even left them in the kennel for them to have playtime when I do leave to go to lunch, because you get scared, ‘What's gonna happen?’” she said.
Despite all the trouble, Gibbs is grateful Chrissy now has a home.
Gibbs says she's done animal rescue for more than 10 years and she's never had a dog stolen. She hopes this situation doesn't happen again.
Captain Dykes says the two people, a man and woman, were arrested at the carnival were both charged with burglary. He says the third person has left town and may be in Ohio – police will obtain a warrant for his arrest.