Family says their dog died after a Wheeling pet resort left him in a hot van for hours

A family is blaming a pet resort in northwest suburban Wheeling for the death of their beloved dog, who they say was left inside a hot van for hours during this week's extreme heat.

Waggles in Wheeling advertises itself as a place for your "pampered pup," but the Serota family in Deerfield said employees there left their dog Miller inside a hot van for seven hours.

The family has now filed a police report and want answers as to how this could have happened.

"Everybody knew him," Steve Serota said of Miller. "He was this big goofy black lab, he was everything you wanted in a dog."

Miller wasn't just the Serotas' dog, he was part of the family. The 110-pound pup had been with them since the pandemic when he was just a puppy.

Miller went to Waggles Pet Resort in Wheeling three times a week. A Waggles van would pick him up from his Deerfield home and take him to the facility for the day.

Serota said Miller was picked up Wednesday around 9 a.m. Then, just after 4 p.m., they got a call.

"They tell me Miller's died," Serota recounted. "And I'm in full shock, and I'm like what happened? How is that possible? And they told me they left him in the van for the whole day."

Serota said when he rushed to Waggles he discovered Miller, not breathing and still inside the crate, in the same spot he'd been picked up in, inside the company van. He said Miller had never been taken into the facility on a day when temperatures reached the mid-90s.

"How? This is so irrational, how this could ever happen," Serota said. "You trust that these people who you entrust your loved ones with, that they're going to take care of them like they're their loved ones. And we've always trusted Miller with these folks."

He's now calling for a full investigation into what went wrong.

"I just want to make sure that people are aware this happened, it's not acceptable, and there's associated accountability to make sure this never happens again to another family," Serota said. "Miller wouldn't want this to happen to somebody else."

Serota has filed a police report and called for an investigation with the agencies that oversee the facility.

CBS News Chicago reached out to Waggles Pet Resort for their response to the family's allegations, and have not yet heard back.