A Cleveland mother is pleading for the safe return of her beloved Shorkie after she the dog was stolen from the family’s car in broad daylight.
In a Facebook post, Alaina Yantko shared that her 2-year-old Shorkie named Lucy was kidnapped just moments after she went into a local deli. Yantko claims that Lucy’s kidnappers were watching her prior to the theft occurring.
“STOLEN DOG!!!!!!!” Yantko wrote alongside photos of Lucy, in addition to a surveillance video recording of the dog’s kidnapping.
“I was watched and targeted as I was getting my kids out of the car! They stole my dog in a split second while I was preoccupied! I was able to get the plate but the car was stolen too,” Yantko wrote. “4 people were in the car but I only saw the driver. Young black male with short dreads.”
“They threw my phone out a couple blocks away on w 52 and Train,” Yantko claimed.
She added that Lucy can easily be identified “with a bad haircut and an underbite.”
“Please keep an eye out! And watch your surroundings!” Yantko begged.
In the video clip, Yantko is seen getting her kids out from an SUV before they all walk into a convenience store.
Update………..HOME WHERE I BELONG! STOLEN DOG!!!!!!!!!! W 52nd and Franklin Cleveland I was watched and targeted…
Posted by Alaina Yantko on Saturday, December 7, 2019
While the family is inside, a car is seen pulling up beside Yantko’s SUV. A man emerges from the car, opeing the passenger’s door to Tantko’s vehicle and appears to rummage around the front seat before transporting an object back to his own vehicle. Then, the man returns to Yantko’s car – presumably for Lucy.
Yantko is then seen running toward the vehicle, with her baby in her arms, frantically banging on the window. Unfortunately, nothing can be done and the driver pulls out of the parking lot, fleeing the scene.
In the video footage, a man can be heard saying, “He took the dog!”
Yantko explained to local outlet Fox 8 that the Saturday afternoon was just a typical one, and she decided to head to the Ohio City Deli in order to deliver something to her husband.
“I noticed there were only two cars in the parking lot and one of them was his,” Yantko said to Fox 8. “I was just trying to get the kids in the store and I was going to come back out to get my purse and something else I had brought for my husband.”
Posted by Alaina Yantko on Saturday, December 7, 2019
According to Fox 8, the man stole both Yantko’s purse and a cell phone before taking Lucy.
“I came out and he threw her in the car and when I grabbed the mirror, he just looked right at me and kept on going,” Yantko revealed to Fox 8.
After reporting the incident to the police and giving them the license plate number, she was informed that the car was reported stolen.
“To watch him watching me was the worst part because I didn’t notice him. Then he pulled up and backed up to watch me go through my car and unbuckle a baby,” Yantko told Fox 8.
“The phone, the money, the purse, none of it matters. We just want our dog back,” Yantko said.
And hopefully they get Lucy back in time for Christmas.
