----- Original Message -----
From: Ellyn
Signet
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 9:39 AM
Subject: [BigDogRescue] Stolen Mastiffs Found-- culprit may have
other stolen dogs
This is a follow up to the forwarded post about the
stolen mastiffs. This guy deserves to be stripped naked, staked out over the
mother of all fire ant mounds, and covered in honey!
Some of you may remember the original post about these mastiffs (2 adults,
2 puppies) that were stolen from their owner's home in MN. Here is the
story of how they were found, and why the owners were able to get them
back.
The person who had these dogs has dozens of other large dogs, some of whom
may have been stolen as well, so please read this and pass this along to
anyone who may have had dogs stolen in the WI and MN area in the past few
years.
Ellyn
----------------------------------------------
THE FOLLOWING IS POSTED WITH PERMISSION . PLEASE CROSSPOST TO ANY OTHER
LARGE BREED LISTS EXCEPT ANY MASTIFF LIST AS THE OWNER OF THE DOGS INVOLVED
WILL DO SO HERSELF .
This is long, but it is better to hear the whole story because the series
of events leading to the dogs recovery are so unbelievable.
As you all know by now, 2 adult mastiffs and 2 2-week old pups were stolen
from the owners home in July. The dogs were owned/co-owned by myself (living
near Gaylord, MN) and my friend Susan who lives near Rochester, MN. The
dogs actually resided with Susan near Rochester. Despite all of the
efforts of a ton of wonderful people, a lot we have never met, no sign of
them. He really had given up hope.
Than, on Monday evening my 18 year old daughter Charity calls me and
says mom, I stopped in to visit a friend I hadn't seen for a couple of
months that moved from a tiny town near us to another tiny town, Buffalo
Lake, MN, and were renting a farm house there. The friends neighbor,
(known hereinafter as pond scum) who apparently was social with her and her
boyfriend had stopped in to
visit and inquire if they wanted a couple of dogs he was giving away that
he didn't want anymore. They were English Mastiffs. The two kids that
were renting the place (my daughters friends) said they didn't but knowing
that I had Mastiffs told Charity to tell me about it.
Since I had recently joined Mastiff Rescue, I thought I should check it out
and if they were indeed mastiffs, contact Rescue and see how to proceed.
The kids commented that he had hundreds of dogs, lions and tigers and
bears, oh my, (pardon the humor), bobcats etc. so I immediately think,
puppy mill, not 25 minutes from my house.
So I pick up my daughter and her boyfriend and we stop at the friends house
to get directions to the suspected mill. We stop in and I knocked at the
door for awhile as there were a number of vehicles on the premises and no
one answers. So we thought we would just looked at the pens of dogs as we
left. It was very, very bad. A LOT of dogs besides the wild
animals. Great Danes, Mastiffs, Neapolitan Mastiffs, Cane Corsos, Presa
Canarios (sp?) Afghans, Dogie D. Bordeaux, etc. "High ticket dogs" as the
police called it.
As we were viewing the place my daughters boyfriend inquired if we had
located our stolen dogs and I told him they were gone for good. I said
there is a mastiff in that kennel over there let's drive closer and look at
him. Maybe it is one he is giving away. I said he looks a lot like our
stud, coloring, head, shape of his legs.
Even has that same crooked ear. Than it hit me like a ton of bricks, it
was Clyde! I opened the window and called to him and he wiggled and
danced. Than he turned and there was the scar.
We peeled out of there and I tried to call Sue on the cell but COULDN'T
remember her number I was so shook and couldn't remember the name of the
little town she lived by so I could call information. I went to the police
who notified the police in the county where we had filed the stolen report
who than called Meeker County where I had seen Clyde. I had a call from a
Meeker county investigator before I got home asking where I had been as I
had no idea of this guys name. After I described the place they
immediately knew where I
had been. They were very thankful I had played it cool and not grabbed
Clyde. Cool, hell, I was so in shock and I can barely remember the drive
home. If I had been thinking straight I would have grabbed him!!!
Well, good thing I didn't. He gathered information on the dogs, got versed
on DNA, micro chipping, got a reader and a search warrant as they said he
knows his rights and if you just go out there, Clyde could disappear while
you were getting the warrant. After 3 tense days, (one day lost when a
major typo on the search warrant was detected that made it useless in
court) I got the call Friday at 11 a.m. that they had not only found Clyde
but Sammi and the puppies!!!
I called Sue who left Rochester for the 2 1/2 hour drive to our place and
headed for the police station where I found 2 dogs that were very, very
happy to see me. They were gone about a month, but not in very good
condition. Clyde is the worst. Very, very thin, losing his coat in large
handfuls, no muscle left at all. His ribs and all vertebrae very
prominent. Both puppies were ill.
Sue and I met at my vets where we treated the pups and when I opened the
door of the pickup and they saw Sue, there was no stopping those two!! I
cried more than once that day!! The dogs got stuck in the doorway getting
into Sue
Suburban. Sue called today and the dogs are very starved.
(obviously) She has to get them back into food gradually, their stools
are horrendous and Clyde is lethargic and isn't "talking" like he used
to. I do believe that will come back.
The thief? He is supposed to be in jail this weekend and Sues county is
pressing charges. What will stick? We don't know yet. He was not there
and they could not reach him when they executed the search, so they left
him a copy of the search warrant on the door and a note. What clinched it
and will give them a case? The micro chip. They were very impressed with
identification procedures we dog people use. They can finally attempt to
charge him with something and make it stick. (we hope)
Now, the connection. This guy is 3 hours from Sue and 25 minutes from
me. (little did he know he stole a dog with a co-owner nearby.) He had to
drive right past my house with the dogs! Creepy. He is ORIGINALLY from
the Rochester, MN area, with his home place not 6 miles from Sue. He was
in the area the night the dogs disappeared. He is about 40 years old and
she might even know him if not by name by face. The police are also
looking into the possible connection between him and the disappearance of a
large number of large dogs from the area about 4 years ago when he started
up his dog business at his new location near my home. So, if anyone had a
dog of any of the breeds I mentioned stolen over the last couple of years
from MN or WI, especially the
Rochester/Austin area, we can strengthen this case by contacting Doug
Pomplun at 320-523-1161 or e-mail <doug_p@co.renville.mn.us>
They COULD NOT scan the other dogs there as they did not have a search
warrant to do so or probable cause. They felt it would have jeopardized
this case. This is a long shot for other people with missing dogs, but
what were the odds of the sequence of events that led to the recovery of
Clyde, Sammi and the babies? (I think I'm going to buy a lottery
ticket!) There are a lot of other dogs out there that could use help. The
investigator will help with paperwork for the AKC to get something going
there as well. If nothing else, we will keep the pond scum busy so he
doesn't have time to be stealing family pets.
________________________________________________
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ellyn Signet ~~~ Dufenhof Greater Swiss
dufenhof@earthlink.net ~~~
~~~ eswiss@swissy.org
Http://www.bastian-net.com/eswiss.htm
If you won't Rescue, Please don't Breed!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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