A woman who spent the last four months doing everything she could conceivably do to find her missing dog — even going so far as to hire a plane to fly a banner publicizing her search — has finally reunited with her pup and an arrest has been made in the “dognapping,” according to the San Francisco Police Department.
Emilie Talermo had tied her six-year old mini Australian shepherd, Jackson, to a bench outside a grocery store in December, but when she had finished her shopping, her dog was nowhere to be found. She spent the past few months working with the police, distributing thousands of fliers, setting up www.bringjacksonhome.com and offering a $7,000 reward for his return “no questions asked.”
The San Francisco Police Department said in a statement that it had followed up on all possible leads, but were not able to locate the missing dog until it received a tip that Jackson had been found in Los Angeles County. Police arrested Nicholas Bravo, a 27-year-old Palmdale resident, on Friday for felony grand theft.
Jackson spent a couple of days at Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control, a shelter in Palmdale nearly 400 miles away from where Talermo lost him, until he was reunited with his owner on Tuesday — one week after his sixth birthday.
“I realized how important he was to me obviously, but him always being around and hearing his little snarls or his little snores or whatever is happening is so special, and it’s been very quiet in isolation without him,” Talermo told NBC Bay Area. ” It makes a difference to have a dog. I feel like everything is brighter again.”
The San Francisco Police Department writes that the arrest in the “dognapping” and Jackson’s return are “the direct result of dogged work by investigators.”
