Colorado family searches for answers after dog is stolen from Golden home

With the posting of one flier after another, a Colorado family in Golden is hard at work searching for their missing best friend Bugsy.

"He is just so special; he is the happiest go-lucky dog," said Jaclyn Tracy.

At 55 pounds, their roughly 5-year-old Husky/Shiba mix rescue is more than just a pet, but he has been an integral part of their family.

"I just don't understand why you would ever take somebody's family like that, because he's our baby," Tracy said.

Yet, everything changed last week. Tracy and her husband where traveling in Asia when they got a call on Jan. 9 from Tracy's mother-in-law, saying someone stole Bugsy from their backyard.

"It's just absolutely terrifying and heart wrenching," said Tracy. "We moved to this neighborhood because we had a baby and wanted a safe neighborhood."

Tracy says their mother-in-law and nanny were watching their child and Bugsy while they were away, when a man stopped by the house asking for food.

"(He) was speaking Spanish and he ask can I have some food," said Tracy. "My mother-in-law and our nanny went and made him a sandwich and gave him a Coke and wished him well, (but) Bugsy was missing immediately after that, and there were footsteps that went into our backyard and the door had been opened."

"I was crying and I was like, 'what do we do?'" she added. "We're across the world feeling so helpless."

Now, they're back home, and working to gather tips and sightings.

In the midst of their search, they discovered a neighbor's mountain bike was also stolen around the same time Bugsy went missing. Then, someone in the neighborhood tried to buy the same bike back from a man at the Applejacks parking lot in Wheat Ridge. It was there that the buyer reportedly saw a dog that look just like Bugsy with the person who was selling it.

"He is an incredibly distinctive looking dog because of his really curly tail and reddish hair," said Tracy. "Since then, we haven't heard anything and that's so terrifying to me."

While Golden police have not confirmed if the two instances are connected, Tracy and other residents in the neighborhood say they're confident the person who stole the bike is the same person who took Bugsy.

"We just want to bring Bugsy back home. We don't know where he is. We don't know if he's still with this criminal," said Tracy.

The family is offering an up to $1,000 reward to bring Busgy back home and is now relying on a growing community, who has been helping them get the word out every step of the way.

'It does remind me of how much power there is in community and how good people can be," she said.