I did not make this one up. It was printed in Denver's Rocky Mountain News on Saturday August 26, 1989. Abigail van Buren, the syndicated agony aunt responded to this question.
This story is recent - it was printed in the San Francisco Chronicle on 26 December 1995.
"She was crying when she went to pick up the dog at the police station,'' Chavez said of his wife. "We only had the dog for a month when he got stolen. It took only a month for me to get to love him.'' Chavez, 31, said one of the first things he and his wife did was take Osito to be groomed. The puppy, valued at nearly $1,000, was snatched with more than $1,100 in cash and designer clothing by five people who lured the couple to a parking lot outside a grocery store in Pacoima on November 18, said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Ed Greene.
Antonio Navarro, 29, of Pacoima and Sergio Galvan, 19, of Van Nuys have been arrested in connection with the case, authorities said. Three other suspects remain at large, Greene said. Authorities said knives were held to Chavez's throat and stomach while he and his wife were being robbed. Greene said Navarro also displayed an Uzi to the couple and threatened to kill them if they called police. The dog was recovered when police officers, furnished with a photo of the animal, arrested Galvan at his family's home, Los Angeles Police Department Detective Richard Tamez said. "I think they (the police) ruined the mom's Christmas,'' Greene said. "They took away her present and her kid.'' Reached at home by telephone, members of the Galvan family declined to discuss the incident.
Chavez said the puppy may have been injured during its ordeal because it appeared to be favoring its left front paw. "We still have to go to the vet,'' Chavez said. "He doesn't want to eat right now. He was really dirty. We had to take him to the groomers.'' Chavez described the pooch as "100 percent Pomeranian,'' a breed characterized by a thickset body with long, coarse hair and a bushy tail turned over the back. Chavez said he and his wife were robbed while selling designer clothes out of the back of their car. Chavez, who works as a surgical supply coordinator for a Los Angeles area hospital, suffered a minor cut to his stomach, but he and his wife were otherwise unhurt in the incident. Chavez said he decided tell police about the theft despite threats made by the people who stole the dog. He urged other crime victims to do the same."Talk to the police. Don't let them get away with it,'' he said. "People need to start standing up.''