So... The morning after Buddy was stolen, I first printed pictures of him to give to the police and animal control. I then called Gaston county animal control and explained to the operator what had happened. She was upset, and said I need to speak to the supervisor because this case was handled incorrectly, but the supervisor was in a meeting. So she said she would have him give me a call back as soon as the meeting was out. I then went to the police station and picked up the police report. The officer had told me that the magistrate told HIM that I would have to get the dog back through the courts... so I had to file a small claims case against him. So... I head to the courthouse.
Some very nice man was pulling out of his space and stopped me to hand me his time ticket, which still had 30 minutes on it. What a nice man! I added another hour just to be safe and began to enjoy the great legal game of pass the buck.
First, I went to the small claims office. They said no... see the district attorney. Dog Theft is a felony, and they don't handle felony cases. So I go to the DA's office. But the police had not written on the report that the dog was stolen. (See... Dean Truelove had told the officer he had "paperwork" on the dog... Never mind that I had his rabies tag, his microchip tag and his name tag on his collar which were left at the house and which my son did show the officer). So they sent me to the magistrate's office. The magistrate said they can't do a warrant for the dog theft because the theft wasn't mentioned. Go back to small claims. Small claims sends me to the criminal courts, because... guess what... Dog theft is a felony, not a civil case. The criminal courts send me back to the magistrate. The magistrate says a police officer has to file the warrant for arrest. Tell the small claims people you want property returned. ( I had to stop at this point and add another hour to the parking pass).
Finally... I explain the whole thing to the nice lady at small claims. She gets her boss, who listens to what I have been through, and she says... "Okay... Here's what we do... Write up the claim as loss of property to the value of what you have invested in the dog over the past 18 months, but not more than 5000 dollars. You CAN take him to court for that." So we fill out the paperwork, pay the court costs and finally get back to the car. I call animal control again, because it is now after 3pm. The supervisor is expected back any minute. Sure enough, he calls back in about 10 minutes. I explain the whole thing. He double checks with me that I have proof of ownership via microchip, and then says he is sending an officer to meet me at my house. He tells me that this whole thing is a mistake, that the dog should have been returned as soon as I said the word microchip.
So I drive home and wait for the animal control officer. He pulls up and I recognize him as the man who often stops to buy water from the store for dogs and who has often brought dogs by the store that he has found to see if anyone recognizes them. He is a good man. We sit on the porch and I pull out Buddy's vet records from when we found him, the records from when we had his shots done, his microchip papers, his spay/neuter clinic visit and of course, his collar with all his ID's on it. I gave him photos of Buddy from the front and from the top so you can see his markings. I tell him how worried I am, what the police officer said and did, what I know about this Truelove character and the things I suspect about him. I tell him all we did to try to find buddy's owners ( calling Animal control, posting his photo on the lost animals page, taking him to the vet to be screened for a microchip, posting his picture at the gas station and drug store, having the rabies tag he was wearing checked and having that come back as belonging to a female pit bull registered in Gastonia). He tells me the dog should never have been left there overnight, that I had accurate papers and that we did everything legally required of us to locate the owner. In fact, we did more than was required. Buddy belongs to us.
He gets two police officers to accompany him to the man's address. A couple hours later, he returns. I ask, "Do you have him?" I can here a pounding in the truck as Buddy's tail is hitting the walls. The officer laughs and says "Yeah... or one that looks just like him at least." I get Buddy out and he is so excited to be home. I take him in and then go talk to the officer. He tells me about picking up my dog.
The dog is actually at the home of Mr. Truelove's mother, which is in a bad part of town. Truelove lives a little ways up from his mother. They claim that Buddy is her dog, that he frequently got loose and wandered around and that I must have snatched him from there. Now, where they live is 2.2 miles from where we found him ( the McDonald's parking lot). They can't say when he got loose. They never called animal control, they never went into animal control to look for him. The only "paperwork" they have is one of those pedigree forms that states the parents names and such, but since Pit Bulls are not an AKC registered breed, this form is basically a worthless piece of paper. It lists nothing about his description, they have no vet records, no rabies tags for him (because, well... he was wearing a different dog's tag to fake out the animal control who just look for a tag but don't run the tag) and they have some undated photos of a dog that looks like him. Nothing that says this is Buddy and they own him. Dean is getting belligerent with the cops, saying that he doesn't care, no one is taking the dog, blah blah blah. The AC officer tells me meanwhile his own mother is calling him an asshole, and saying that she told him not to do it. Seems none of the twelve people who are now there can come up with a straight story about when they saw my dog (6 months ago, three weeks ago, 3 days ago). At any rate, the AC officer tells the mother that this dog has been living the good life with a woman who has terminal cancer, and who is devastated because the dog who saved her life by sniffing out her cancer is missing. He asks her to do the right thing. She says nothing. She doesn't volunteer to give the dog back, but the officer said he could tell she wanted to, but was worried about her son. They scan the dog as soon as he is brought out, and yep... the microchip shows up. Now it is a Felony.
The officer went on to tell me to take him to the vet. This group of people had lots of dogs, and while they looked okay, he didn't check any paperwork on them. So who knows what he was exposed to. Furthermore, he warns me to walk my yard before I put my dogs out, as these people are PWT and they are the type of people who would do something to injure my animals. As he said... all it would take would be 6 Tylenol and my baby would be dead. Then he gives me a lecture on how extremely "healthy" Buddy the couch potato is. He said... I don't think he has ever missed a meal, or a snack, or a table scrap... has he?" I start stammering an apology and he laughs. Don't apologize to me... apologize to that fat dog. But he does say it is obvious that my dogs are in no danger of being mistreated, other than by being over indulged.
So... Buddy is home and guess what... I bought some diet food for them.
Some very nice man was pulling out of his space and stopped me to hand me his time ticket, which still had 30 minutes on it. What a nice man! I added another hour just to be safe and began to enjoy the great legal game of pass the buck.
First, I went to the small claims office. They said no... see the district attorney. Dog Theft is a felony, and they don't handle felony cases. So I go to the DA's office. But the police had not written on the report that the dog was stolen. (See... Dean Truelove had told the officer he had "paperwork" on the dog... Never mind that I had his rabies tag, his microchip tag and his name tag on his collar which were left at the house and which my son did show the officer). So they sent me to the magistrate's office. The magistrate said they can't do a warrant for the dog theft because the theft wasn't mentioned. Go back to small claims. Small claims sends me to the criminal courts, because... guess what... Dog theft is a felony, not a civil case. The criminal courts send me back to the magistrate. The magistrate says a police officer has to file the warrant for arrest. Tell the small claims people you want property returned. ( I had to stop at this point and add another hour to the parking pass).
Finally... I explain the whole thing to the nice lady at small claims. She gets her boss, who listens to what I have been through, and she says... "Okay... Here's what we do... Write up the claim as loss of property to the value of what you have invested in the dog over the past 18 months, but not more than 5000 dollars. You CAN take him to court for that." So we fill out the paperwork, pay the court costs and finally get back to the car. I call animal control again, because it is now after 3pm. The supervisor is expected back any minute. Sure enough, he calls back in about 10 minutes. I explain the whole thing. He double checks with me that I have proof of ownership via microchip, and then says he is sending an officer to meet me at my house. He tells me that this whole thing is a mistake, that the dog should have been returned as soon as I said the word microchip.
So I drive home and wait for the animal control officer. He pulls up and I recognize him as the man who often stops to buy water from the store for dogs and who has often brought dogs by the store that he has found to see if anyone recognizes them. He is a good man. We sit on the porch and I pull out Buddy's vet records from when we found him, the records from when we had his shots done, his microchip papers, his spay/neuter clinic visit and of course, his collar with all his ID's on it. I gave him photos of Buddy from the front and from the top so you can see his markings. I tell him how worried I am, what the police officer said and did, what I know about this Truelove character and the things I suspect about him. I tell him all we did to try to find buddy's owners ( calling Animal control, posting his photo on the lost animals page, taking him to the vet to be screened for a microchip, posting his picture at the gas station and drug store, having the rabies tag he was wearing checked and having that come back as belonging to a female pit bull registered in Gastonia). He tells me the dog should never have been left there overnight, that I had accurate papers and that we did everything legally required of us to locate the owner. In fact, we did more than was required. Buddy belongs to us.
He gets two police officers to accompany him to the man's address. A couple hours later, he returns. I ask, "Do you have him?" I can here a pounding in the truck as Buddy's tail is hitting the walls. The officer laughs and says "Yeah... or one that looks just like him at least." I get Buddy out and he is so excited to be home. I take him in and then go talk to the officer. He tells me about picking up my dog.
The dog is actually at the home of Mr. Truelove's mother, which is in a bad part of town. Truelove lives a little ways up from his mother. They claim that Buddy is her dog, that he frequently got loose and wandered around and that I must have snatched him from there. Now, where they live is 2.2 miles from where we found him ( the McDonald's parking lot). They can't say when he got loose. They never called animal control, they never went into animal control to look for him. The only "paperwork" they have is one of those pedigree forms that states the parents names and such, but since Pit Bulls are not an AKC registered breed, this form is basically a worthless piece of paper. It lists nothing about his description, they have no vet records, no rabies tags for him (because, well... he was wearing a different dog's tag to fake out the animal control who just look for a tag but don't run the tag) and they have some undated photos of a dog that looks like him. Nothing that says this is Buddy and they own him. Dean is getting belligerent with the cops, saying that he doesn't care, no one is taking the dog, blah blah blah. The AC officer tells me meanwhile his own mother is calling him an asshole, and saying that she told him not to do it. Seems none of the twelve people who are now there can come up with a straight story about when they saw my dog (6 months ago, three weeks ago, 3 days ago). At any rate, the AC officer tells the mother that this dog has been living the good life with a woman who has terminal cancer, and who is devastated because the dog who saved her life by sniffing out her cancer is missing. He asks her to do the right thing. She says nothing. She doesn't volunteer to give the dog back, but the officer said he could tell she wanted to, but was worried about her son. They scan the dog as soon as he is brought out, and yep... the microchip shows up. Now it is a Felony.
The officer went on to tell me to take him to the vet. This group of people had lots of dogs, and while they looked okay, he didn't check any paperwork on them. So who knows what he was exposed to. Furthermore, he warns me to walk my yard before I put my dogs out, as these people are PWT and they are the type of people who would do something to injure my animals. As he said... all it would take would be 6 Tylenol and my baby would be dead. Then he gives me a lecture on how extremely "healthy" Buddy the couch potato is. He said... I don't think he has ever missed a meal, or a snack, or a table scrap... has he?" I start stammering an apology and he laughs. Don't apologize to me... apologize to that fat dog. But he does say it is obvious that my dogs are in no danger of being mistreated, other than by being over indulged.
So... Buddy is home and guess what... I bought some diet food for them.
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