NYPD: Dog Returned After Being Taken From Fenced-In Front Yard In Queens
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A dog has been returned after police said the animal was taken from a fenced-in front yard in Queens.
Police had said the dog was stolen, but sources said the girl who took the dog claimed she had no such intentions.
It happened last Friday morning in the area of 37th Avenue in North Corona.
"I had her since she was a puppy," Chula's owner Doris Campos told CBS2's Scott Rapoport. "She was like a daughter to me."
The heartbroken owner was concerned for her beloved two-year-old Shih Tzu, which police say was stolen by a girl who entered her family's yard and snatched the unsuspecting pup.
The girl was then seen on surveillance video carrying the dog on 37th Avenue, according to police.
"It hurts me a lot," Campos said. "She was part of my family."
Chula's owner says the ordeal was especially hard on her 5-year-old son, Jhean, who had a special relationship with the dog.
"She was my son's best friend," Campos said. "He's more frustrated than I am because he's like, 'I protected Chula. She was my Chula'."
Sources tell CBS2 Chula was turned in to the NYPD's 115th Precinct just after 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Police sources told CBS2 the girl who took Chula claimed the dog was loose, and had escaped her enclosure and wandered onto the sidewalk. The girl said she picked up the dog fearing that she would be hit by a car, sources said.
She kept the dog, and when she saw the video and the presumption of a crime, she showed up at the 115th Precinct with the dog on her mother's advice, sources said.
Police took custody of the pooch and they notified the owner, and the dog and owner were reunited at the precinct, sources said.
The girl – Mariela Saquipulla, 18, of Queens – was charged late Wednesday with petit larceny and criminal possession of stolen property.