A man living in Denver whose dog ran away from home is now warning other owners of possible scams he encountered while trying to find his dog.
Derek Guilin’s dog, Lou, ran away from home after the wind blew the front door open. After searching around the neighborhood for his dog, Guilin put flyers up and posted about his lost pet on social media.
Pay Attention to Scams
That’s when he started to get some weird responses…
“On Tuesday, three separate people tried to scam me for my Google information to crack my Google account,” Guilin told CBS Denver.
Three days had gone by and his dog was still nowhere to be found. Then, the phone rang and someone had claimed to have his dog.
“I mean, pretty much the first thing that he said was ‘Hey, I have your dog. I bought her for $150.’ So, the money came into play right off the bat,” Guilin said. “I told him I’d bring $150. That didn’t seem to be sufficient enough, so I added another $100 onto that.”
Thankfully, Guilin was able to get this dog back, but the story was just so weird. The man said that he bought Lou from a homeless man on the street and wouldn’t provide any more details.
Pet Flipping
After doing some research, Guilin suspects he was a victim of “pet flipping” – where people sell lost, stolen, or rescue dogs they don’t own.
The fact that people would do such a thing is despicable.
“Microchip is number one to prove that it is your dog,” Animal Management Supervisor for Westminster police, Kelli Jelen, said. “I think the dog owner should get as much documentation on this person, phone number, names, any kind of addresses. The information that he has, and he needs to take it to his local police or sheriff’s department and make a report.”
The best thing to do if you find yourself in this type of situation is to report odd behavior to the police.
