Stolen Backhoe Found Near Stolen Great Dane
There are ways investigators can reunite construction companies with their stolen heavy equipment. And there are ways animal agencies can reunite pet owners with stolen pooches. That exact scenario occurred Friday, thanks to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and Riverside County Animal Services working in tandem.
Sheriff’s investigators located a stolen John Deere backhoe, an $80,000 vehicle, on a property in Jurupa Valley. Read the sheriff’s news release here: http://www.riversidesheriff.org/press/jvs18-0824.asp
Not too far from the heavy equipment, deputies noticed a dog chained to a concrete block. Knowing something didn’t seem right, the deputies contacted Animal Services.
Animal control officers Dane Ericson and Christopher Peck retrieved the dog, a 3-year-old Great Dane and checked her for a microchip. There was a beep on his chip scanner, indicating a hit for the chip. Officer Peck used the chip information to contact the presumed owner of the dog.
“The owner told us the dog had been stolen two years earlier,” Officer Peck said. “She said her daughter never forgot about the family pet and had been praying, tossing coins into fountains and wishing upon every shooting star that their pet would one day return home.”
That wish came true on Saturday at the Western Riverside County/City Animal Shelter in Jurupa Valley, not too far from where Adam Hagan and Makayla Farin used to live. The couple, now Lake Elsinore residents, expressed relief when Sadie seemed to recognize them both right away.
“As soon as I walked back there, she looked at us through the cage and jumped up on it and was just wagging all over the place,” Adam Hagan said.
On Saturday, during the heartfelt reunion, the couple did not tell their daughter, Charlie Hagan, about the good news. Not until they made her close her eyes, and strung a Happy Birthday sign over Sadie. It was Charlie’s fifth birthday on Saturday and the couple wanted to surprise her.
